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NEWBERRY – Matt Finley, Newberry College director of athletics, announced the promotion of Lindsey Barwick to the position of director of the Spirit Program.

Barwick has served as the Wolves’ head cheerleading coach since May 2012 and becomes the first ever spirit coordinator at Newberry College.

“I’m very excited about the growth of the Newberry spirit program,” Barwick said. “We are looking to raise the profile of Newberry cheerleading on the regional and national scale. I currently have a great group of kids on the team laying the foundation for the program and look to build upon that foundation next season with the addition of a very strong recruiting class of over 20 cheerleaders.”

In her time at Newberry, Barwick has coached the Wolves cheer squad to a third-place finish at the CHEERSPORT 2013 National Cheerleading and Dance Championship in Atlanta. The Wolves finished third just behind Division 1 program Georgia Tech.

Barwick has grown the Newberry cheerleading program from 16 returning women to a roster of 42. The program has grown beyond roster size under Barwick’s guidance as she has developed an all-girl non-competitive team and added a co-ed competitive team. She plans on building the program to over 50 cheerleaders for the 2013-14 season.

As the Director of the Spirit Program, Barwick will also oversee the development of the newly-formed dance team, while continuing her role as the head cheerleading coach.

“Jenna Eyre has a very strong background in dance and I know she will do well to build the dance program at Newberry,” Barwick added. “Eyre is bringing in a squad of 10 dancers to start the program, and will look to expand the program in the near future. The dance team will join the cheerleaders at all home sporting events and will also compete against other collegiate dance teams. I’m looking forward to seeing the dance team on the field with the cheerleaders at the football home opener against Florida Tech.”

Prior to being named the head cheerleading coach at Newberry, Barwick was the head cheerleading coach at Sandy Creek High School in Tyrone, Ga. Barwick also has experience as a coach, choreographer and camp instructor at CHEERSPORT Inc., Lassiter High School in Marietta, Ga., and at Action Cheer and Tumble in Columbia Barwick was a four-year member of the all-girl squad at the University of South Carolina from 2005-09.