A Waterloo native was honored recently for her dedication to cheerleading as a coach. 

Amy Hopper, a 2005 graduate of Waterloo High School, was named 2026 Junior High School Coach of the Year by the Illinois Cheerleading Coaches Association.

Hopper was selected for this honor out of six junior high school coaches nominated. 

In her 16th year of coaching overall, Hopper has served as cheerleading coach at Knoxville Junior High School for 13 years. She also serves as eighth grade math and seventh/eighth grade STEM teacher at Knoxville.

Nominations for this award may be submitted by athletes, parents, other coaches or administrators through a form on the ICCA website. From the nominations, the ICCA chooses a winner based on the nomination letters received. 

“This year was truly one of the most unexpectedly incredible years of my coaching career,” Hopper told the Republic-Times. 

Hopper explained that only seven cheerleaders participated this year, which is the smallest group she’s ever had.

“Of those seven, only three of them were returners,” she said. “My only eighth grader was new this year.” 

In the past, Knoxville competed in both game day and routine cheerleading options. Given the small participation numbers and limited experience, Hopper decided to only compete as a game day squad.

“Game day is a cheer, like you would see at a football or basketball game, that engages the crowd with callbacks, and includes signs, poms, megaphones, etc., as well as skills like tumbling, stunts, and jumps,” she explained. “It requires a lot of energy from the athletes to get the crowd involved.” 

Knoxville placed first this season at three invitationals, second at one invitational, second at the ICCA Championships, and ninth at the IESA state meet.

“Their placement at the ICCA Championships was actually a school record,” Hopper said. “We had never placed in the top three at ICCA Championships before this year.”