Glenda Stancil has been coaching cheerleading in Detroit for 43 years

Inside the New St. Paul Tabernacle gym during a recent cheerleading practice, Glenda Stancil watched as a member of her Hott Sauce team had trouble with a routine.

The 10-year-old knew it, and after a few frustrating attempts, walked off in tears.

Stancil ran to comfort her, listened to her and said: "Don't be so hard on yourself." A few minutes later, the student returned to practice. Stancil gave her a high-five. She tried again and nailed it.

“If I believe in you,” Stancil told her. “You got to believe in you.”

Moments like that have defined Stancil's 43-year coaching career, one that American Youth Football and Cheer is honoring as the national organization inducts Stancil into its hall of fame.

Known as Coach Pott — a nickname she got when she was a young girl in Mississippi, where she said everyone has a nickname, before her family moved to Detroit in 1971 — Stancil discovered her passion for cheer when she was 12, watching her cousins practice.

She could plan the choreography in her head.

“I was coaching in my eyes and with my vision; I didn’t even know I was doing it,” Stancil, 58, said. “Later on in life, I learned this is a gift.”

She cheered in middle school and high school. At 15 years old, Stancil started coaching at Detroit PAL. She won the Little League Championship with the Westside Cubs in her first season. Stancil then went on to coach at four high schools across the city and other youth organizations, and has twice returned to Detroit PAL. She has been the citywide sports organization's cheer commissioner since 2006.

“She’s generational,” said David Greenwood, Detroit PAL's director of program and facilities. “The ripple effect that she has is on multiple people in different ways — it’s not just caring about them being able to cheer, it’s about caring about them as people and caring whether or not they succeed in life.”

That ripple effect is evident in the people who surround Stancil.

JaNay Miles, now 24, first met Stancil when she was 4 years old on Detroit PAL's West 7 Rams. Stancil was her coach at Cass Tech. Now, Miles coaches alongside Stancil.

Miles said Stancil teaches her athletes discipline, leadership and sportsmanship.

“She’s the prime example of what every single coach should be like.”

Tiara Riddick, 29, met Stancil as a 6-year-old cheering for Detroit PAL’s North Detroit Jets. Now she's the team mom for the Mini Redd Hottz, a team of 5- to 9-year-olds.

“She motivates them," Riddick said of Stancil. "… She’s very hands-on … she’s in the practices. She’s not one of those people who’s going to sit and just kind of shout directions. She’s actually doing it with them.”

And she's known as a champion for cheer.

Stancil had invited Ann Doyle, a member of Detroit PAL's board of directors, out to a few cheer practices to see just how many people are invested with the program.

Through Detroit PAL’s Girls Changing the Game campaign they raised the money for the equipment to incorporate stunting, such as pyramids and basket tosses, into PAL’s cheer program. Those skills put Stancil's athletes in a better position to earn college scholarships.

"Several generations of Detroit women, some of them are grandmothers now, have been coached by Coach Pott. There’s tremendous respect for what she does and what she teaches those girls," said Doyle.

As Stancil has guided young athletes, she has encountered struggles, too. One of her biggest hurdles had nothing to do with coaching. Stancil had struggled with not having a college degree.

“That bothered me for years and I used to always think that I wasn’t enough, and I used to hold back from applying to certain things,” Stancil said. “In my mind, I knew I had the knowledge, but I just felt like the paper wasn’t there.”

Stancil says she was about 40 when she finally became comfortable with not having a degree. And she has accepted that a higher power put her on a path to coaching.

"I have a decree, which is a blessing from God, to teach cheerleading, and not have a degree."

Stancil credits patience and passion for her success in coaching.

"Every kid is different, so you take the time to learn them. ... Nobody learns the same."

Her advice to young coaches?

"Make sure you have the time, because once you get involved with kids, you create a bond, and sometimes you don’t even know it," Stancil said. "Just make sure this is something you’re going to put the time, energy and passion into.”

Eric Guzmán, a corps member with Report for America, covers youth sports culture for the Detroit Free Press. Reach him at eguzman@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit cheerleading coach Glenda Stancil has taught many generations