Cameron Athletics
Kenton Means, Sports Information Director
LAWTON – Cameron University athletic director Jim Jackson has announced the hiring of the department’s new spirit team head coach Adla-Marie Burke.
“Adla-Marie is a great fit to lead our spirit team. She relocated to Lawton through Ft. Sill and has a tremendous amount of experience in dance,” Jackson said when asked about CU’s new spirit coach. “With her time spent at Bowling Green, she understands the need for both the cheer and dance teams to work hand-in-hand, which is something we want going forward. She brings a professionalism to the position, and has teaching and choreographing background in multiple types of dance and cheer. I am so pleased that the timing was right for both her and us.”
Burke joins the Aggie athletic department with a big background in collegiate dance. She spent four years as a part of the Bowling Green University dance team and was a captain during the 2017-18 season. Her teams not only represented BGSU at sporting events, but also out in the community and at the Universal Dance Association’s National Competition.
“I hope to bring some new perspective to the program,” told Burke when asked about her dance background. “My background is different than most leaders in this field, but I believe this to be a positive. The goal is to build up the dance team, while advancing cheer, and then to bring the two teams closer together. I want to have them work with each other to build even more support for the community, the University, and Cameron Athletics.”
Prior to coming to Cameron, Burke spent time teaching and choreographing at Planet Dance in Cincinnati, Ohio and the Beat Dance Company in Bowling Green, Ohio. She also spent time at the Toledo School of Arts where she worked mainly in the marketing department, and created social media campaigns to promote art events.
“Our top priority moving forward is game day content. My belief is that the Spirit Team is here to represent Cameron University in a positive light and spread Aggie pride throughout campus and the community. While competing is something I would love to look into in the future, game day content will always be my main priority for this program.”
Burke graduated from Bowling Green in May of 2018 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Education with a focus in dance and received a minor in business administration.
“The transition to Cameron has been wonderful. Every person I have met has been kind and willing to help me get this program going since the day I stepped on campus. To those many people, I want to thank them because they have been and will be the people that will help this program and me succeed.”