Signing to continue his academic and competitive career, Powell High School senior Kolby Crichton will continue his cheerleading career at the collegiate level, heading to Rocky Mountain College in Billings this fall.

He began his cheerleading career in middle school, before becoming a part of the Powell High School team the past four years.

He said that he had been applying to compete at the next level prior to his All-State selection, but earning that honor helped “cement” his decision to continue cheering.

Crichton earned All-State honors in January, being named to the Co-Ed All-State team as Powell placed third in 4A Co-Ed and fifth in 3A Gameday in Casper at the state spirit competition.

He said that this brings a close to his high school career, with college bringing a whole new challenge moving forward.

“College as it is similar, it’s a whole new level with different rule sets and more advanced stunts are allowed,” Crichton said.

The audition process was fully online, with Rocky recruiting through videos rather than holding a full audition in person for the team, he said.

At the next level, Crichton will be involved with a lot more solo action, involving him holding up one flyer rather than being involved with multiple spotters on a stunt.

“I’m extremely excited for a lot of one mans, just me and one flyer,” Crichton said. “We are supposed to be doing a lot of that and also finding new stunts, what I can do more of, more capabilities and limits.”

Crichton said he would need to work out to gain more muscle to perform those stunts.

“I am a string bean of sorts in comparison to a lot of the college level guys,” Crichton said. “I’m going to be working out over the summer and when we get there we will have workout routines with the team itself.”

He said throughout his high school career his coaches helped push him to become a better athlete and cheerleader, and build a better character as well.

“They definitely pushed me to be better. I definitely could not have gotten even close to here without them,” Crichton said.

Rocky Mountain College is an NAIA school, which became the first Montana college ever to qualify for the National Cheerleaders Association Nationals, as the Battlin’ Bears will compete in the NAIA Advanced All-Girl Division this weekend, April 11-13 in Daytona, Florida.

Educationally, Crichton said that heading to Billings will be a key step in his pursuit of a degree, keeping him close to home as he goes into the human and health performances program.

That will move him towards becoming a physical therapist or an athletic trainer in the future.

“I’m excited to go,” Crichton said.