Troumbley named new head coach of Spirit Squad
For the sixth time this year, a Utah State team has a new look at head coach.
The USU Spirit Squad welcomed Nicole Troumbley on Monday as the new head coach of the team.
“It’s an incredible team, there’s incredible talent,” Troumbley said. “It’s so neat to be up here and be back in this environment and feel everyone’s energy. From the team, but also from the student body and campus in general, it’s nice to be back up here.”
Troumbley, a former Spirit Squad member and USU alum, was appointed by interim head coach and Student Involvement and Leadership director Linda Zimmerman nearly four months after former head coach Jennifer Hollingsworth resigned.
It is the fourth coaching position for Troumbley, who has also served in different coaching capacities over the past 10 years at Mountain Crest High School, Westside High School and Salt Lake Community College.
Zimmerman said Troumbley was the leading candidate through the entire hiring process.
“In just three days she’s come in and done an incredible job already,” she said. “I’m just thrilled to have someone with a passion and a love for the program. … You have to have that.”
Troumbley was a member of the Spirit Squad from 2005-08 and also cheered at Mountain Crest and Snow College before coming to USU. She graduated with a degree in psychology and also minored in FCHD and sociology.
It’s always been an aspiration for Troumbley to have a career in cheerleading and dancing, something she said she’s been glued to since she was a little girl. She said her biggest goal is a sense of consistency.
“With so much that’s happened this last year, so many changes, my biggest goal is to have them come back together and feel that consistency with one coach they know is going to be here and isn’t going anywhere,” she said.
While Troumbley’s first love was dance and cheer, she found a new love through the Spirit Squad – her husband Tommy.
Tommy was a member of the team when Troumbley tried out, and she said he played a large role in helping her improve her stunting and ability, so much in fact that she was afraid to face him after failing to make the team he first year.
But as fate would have it, the pair was reunited a short time later away from the team and, as Troumbley said, “The rest is history.” “The rest” includes a 10-year marriage, two children and countless hours spent with her husband, who is familiar with the profession and understands the stresses and time commitments associate with it.
But from the couples time on the team to now, Troumbley said the biggest difference that she’s seen is the talent level.
“The competition at tryouts and the talent that comes out, the talent just keeps climbing and climbing,” she said.
– curtislundstrom@gmail.com
Twitter: @CurtSport07