When cheerleaders face the struggles and challenges of successful cheerleading, it can be hard to watch the physical and mental pain they most sometimes go through. At times like this it can help to remember the valuable lessons they are learning which will help them throughout their adult lives. When Cheer Channel caught up recently with former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Cheerleader Sherry Leetham, she told us about how Junior Varsity Cheerleading helps her as a personal trainer and business owner today.

Sherry loved watching Pop Warner Cheerleaders and Pro Cheerleaders on TV and at sporting events from a very young age, but she knew her family could never afford for her to join. It wasn't attending college that she realized her lifelong dream was within reach. It would still take more hard work to achieve -- though she made the Junior Varsity squad, she could not afford to pay her expenses. Undaunted, Sherry worked summer jobs for the next three summers to save money before successfully joining the squad.

I asked Sherry what cheerleading taught her. Without hesitation she replied, "Perseverance! Cheerleading is more than just standing on the sideline. It teaches you how to present yourself and stay positive even when the mood at a game is running low." In life's hardest moments, she told us she just has to put on that "cheerleader smile" and she knows she can face anything.

Though Sherry Leetham went into social work after college, she found herself drawn back to athletics and cheerleading itself. Now a successful business woman, she has begun marketing a physical fitness and cheerleader conditioning program called Fit2Cheer. This revolutionary program uses real cheerleading moves and weighted pom-poms she calls "PoundPoms" to create a new form of aerobic exercise. Cheer Channel expects to hear lots more about from Sherry and Fit2Cheer in the future.