Trester excited to join Washburn cheer program

By Andy Brown
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Updated: March 8, 2022

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

For the last three seasons, Jayden Trester has experienced a lot of success with the Louisburg cheer program.

Trester has helped the Wildcat cheer squad to a state championship as a sophomore, a third-place finish as a junior and a runner-up finish this past season. All that success and cheering on the sidelines hasn’t given the Louisburg senior a reason to give it all up just yet.

In fact, Trester isn’t even close to being done.

She recently signed with the Washburn University cheerleading squad and will be on the sidelines for all the Ichabod football and basketball games next season.

“I am extremely excited and thankful to have the opportunity to cheer at a collegiate level at Washburn University, and I know my younger self would be jumping up and down out of excitement for me that I made my dreams come true,” Trester said, “I am excited to finally get to experience college life and pursue my dreams in becoming a forensics psychologist.”

Trester has basically had pom poms in her hand since she was a little and the spark for cheerleading was lit at an early age.

“I have been cheering for 13 years,” she said. “I started when I was around 5 years old and I haven’t stopped since. It wasn’t until I was a freshman in high school when I realized I wanted to cheer in college. I knew I wouldn’t be ready to hang up my uniform and put my pom poms on the shelf when senior year rolled around.”

Louisburg senior Jayden Trester signs a national letter of intent to cheer for Washburn University. Pictured with Jayden are (in front, from left) her mother Shelly, sister Jordyn, and her father Jason; (back row) grandfather Terry Thoele, uncle Will Thoele, cousin Elijah Tapp, grandfather Jack Greene, brother Dylan, and grandmother Samantha Greene. In the framed picture with her on the left side of the table is her seventh-grade coach, Suzanne Reedy, who passed away in 2020.

It was in high school where Trester continued to thrive as she helped the Wildcats to three consecutive top three finishes at the state game day competition.

“I think I’ve grown tremendously both as a cheerleader and as a person throughout my high school years,” Trester said. “l have learned so much from my teammates, coaches, teachers and friends both on and off the mat. I went from back row and the tumbler of the squad to getting offers from many different schools to cheer at a collegiate level. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without such supportive people.

“Being apart of three state titles is one of my biggest accomplishments and is something our team gets praised for often. Nothing feels better than hearing your schools name get called for being first, second and third in the state of Kansas.”

Trester had a few different schools to choose from, but Washburn was a place that was going to be hard to beat throughout the process.

“Washburn was already at the top of my college lists before I even got recruited,” she said. “My teacher, Leanna Willer, who is an alumni of Washburn, told me how great of a school it is. In October of 2020, I visited the campus and fell in love with everything about it. The community seemed so kind and caring and the campus was just small enough to make me feel like home. I knew I wanted to go there but I also knew that I wanted to cheer.

“In December of 2021 I got a message on Instagram from the Ichabod cheer team. They gave me the coaches information saying she wanted to get ahold of me and talk to me about cheerleading. That same day she offered me a spot on the Washburn Cheerleading Team for the 2022-23 season. It was an automatic yes and I have been set since.”