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For one special season the Shay sisters took the mats for the Troup High competition cheer team. Loren, a senior, and Kylah, a freshman, wrapped their only season on the mats together in November and what a bittersweet ending it was.

“I started crying,” Kylah said. “It was a great experience, but it makes me so sad that I won’t ever get to cheer with her again.”

“It was kind of weird to cheer with my sister, but I’m so grateful that we got to do it even if it was just one year,” Loren added. “It was special to get to share these memories with her.”

The dynamic sister duo’s relationship at cheer practice was not always sunshine and roses. Like any siblings, at times they butted heads, often in front of the entire team.

“We (butt heads) almost every day,” Kylah said as the two tried to contain their giggles. “Usually when we do the coaches start yelling at us.”

But when times got tough, they could always lean on each other.

“If something was ever annoying us we could always tell each other,” Loren said. “Even when we had nobody else to tell, we could always come to each other if we were having a bad day.”

Cheerleading is not a life-long endeavor for either of the Shay sisters. The two grew up on Tumbletown 2 with Loren envisioning herself as the next Simone Biles while Kylah wanted to be like her big sister.

Loren tried out for the Long Cane cheerleading team as a seventh grader, made the team and the rest is history.

“I used to watch her do it and knew I wanted to do it too,” Kylah said. “I did gymnastics for a year, but cheer I’ve been doing since I was in sixth grade.” 

Just a few short years later Kylah was on the mats as a cheerleader too.

Even though Loren and Kylah didn’t find cheer until middle school, it very much runs in the family. Their mother also cheered under current head cheer coach Amelia Key. 

The two share more than just genetics, they are also the same position for stunts: side base.

“We have the same stunting position so sometimes we will get in an argument about ‘oh you’re not doing this right,’” Loren said as the two burst out laughing remembering all the times they would bicker on the mats. 

Kylah still has three more years of Troup cheer and plans to make the most of it. Loren is in her final days. On Wednesday, the Troup High Game Day Cheer team, of which Kylah is not a member, will travel to Columbus for the GHSA state competition which will serve as the final time that Loren takes the mat for the Tigers.

“At (competition state cheer competition) I ended our routine behind her and after it was over she turned around and we hugged and cried,” Loren said. 

“You’re about to make me cry again,” Kylah interjected.

And just like that, the baton will be officially passed from one Shay to the next.