Meet coach Trace: He's been leading Western's cheerleading teams for 40 years

Since 1977, David-Lee Tracey, or Trace, has never missed a home football game at Western University.

As the head coach for Western's cheerleading team, this year marks his 40th season with the Mustangs, a team he's led to countless national and international championships.

Under his coaching, Western's cheerleading team has won 33 National Co-Ed Cheerleading Championships since the organization's inception in 1985. In all that time, they've only lost once.

According to Tracey, getting into cheering was a matter of being "in the right place, at the right time."

How it all started

Coming to Western for his undergrad degree in 1977, Tracey didn't try out for the university cheerleading team until he was entering his fourth year in 1980. He said there were two reasons for trying out, one that many can relate to.

"I tried out because of a girl. I had this big crush on her and I thought, 'Boy, there's my chance. I'll give that a go and maybe I'll meet her.' I tried out, made the team and she quit and never came back," he said laughing.

A professor in one of his classes had also encouraged him to pursue cheerleading, having once been a cheerleader himself at Western. A few fellow classmates already on the team also told him to go for it. At first, Tracey was a little cautious. 

"I didn't tell anybody. At the time I was like 'oh I don't know, guys are gonna think I'm some goofball, what the hell's a cheerleader doing?'"

But he noticed quickly that there was a very positive opinion on cheerleaders, both male and female across campus. As the year wrapped up, the then captain of the team asked Tracey if he wanted to take over the team.

"He leans over and says 'Hey Trace, I'm not coming back next semester, do you wanna be the captain?' I was like, 'uhhh, sure I guess,'" he said.

After taking over, Tracey realized that cheerleading needed a little more athleticism to it. 

"Even back then when I was beginning, I thought 'man we can do better.' We can train on a more athletic model than simply being crazy extroverts in front of a crowd yelling and screaming," said Tracey.

Moving toward athleticism

Around this time, cheerleading was starting to evolve. Competitive cheerleading at the collegiate level was taking off in the States, as national championships were starting to gain traction.

While the movement hadn't reached Canada yet, Tracey observed the sport's growth in whatever way he could. Often he grabbed snippets from whatever he could get his hands on to get ideas to incorporate into the team. Magazines like Sports Illustrated helped him to learn how universities south of the border were revolutionizing the sport.

"I kind of morphed it into more of a technical thing and said let's model ourselves after the U.S. programs," said Tracey.

Around 1985, he started taking the team to training programs around the United States, mixing with other universities to learn how their cheerleading teams were combining athleticism with competing. Mixing with other schools is what Tracey believes shifted gears for Western's cheer program.

"We sort of immersed ourselves in the U.S. collegiate cheer model in terms of the tricks, the flipping, all that kind of stuff and off we went from there," he said.

As he watched the movement happen, Tracey became a part of it once competitive cheerleading made its way into Canada. Around 1986, he became one of the founders of the Ontario Cheerleading Federation. The federation helped to establish concrete rules and regulations for cheerleading at the high school and collegiate levels.  

Across the country, cheerleading was becoming more established as a sport. Competitions became more of a thing at the high school and university levels, mimicking the impact that took off in the States.

Having been involved with the sport at Western for a number of years, Tracey says this gave the cheerleading team a slight advantage to become one of the preemptive competitive cheer programs in Canada. A competitive edge that continues today.

Maintaining success

Tracey credits the team's knack for stability over the years due to a continuity of coaching format, recruitment, and awareness. 

"I build the team from the bottom, not from the top. We want to build strong freshmen and motivated athletes coming in as 17 and 18 year-olds. That's where I focus my energy," he said.

Besides Western, Tracey coaches the national cheerleading team, and has coached various high schools and other competitive teams in the past. Last year, he led Team Canada to a silver medal. 

Over the past 40 years, Tracey estimates he's coached over 3,000 cheerleaders, some of whom he's seen again long after they move on from the sport.

"I love when I meet a parent or person and they say, 'you won't remember me but you coached me when I was in grade 10 and this is my daughter, she's trying out for your team this year' and I go 'wow! That's pretty cool," he said. 

Looking back on his career, Tracey has been credited for helping to elevate cheerleading around the country.

"I'm very pleased and proud, but I can't take all the credit. I think I was in the right place and right time with the right amount of energy. There's a lot of other people doing amazing things to build this sport around the country and it gives us a vehicle to ride around in," he said. 

"I just joined a great thing at the right time and kinda took the ball and ran and ran."