Draughn senior Cali Absher on Monday signed to continue her cheerleading career at Liberty University. Seated with Absher are her mother Ashley (left) and her father Brandon (right). Standing (from left to right) are her grandfather Steve Johnson, her grandmother Linda Johnson, her brother’s girlfriend Kendall Lentz, and her brother Zach Absher.
Draughn senior Cali Absher is passionate about cheerleading, and she has accomplished a lot during her four years as a member of the Wildcats’ varsity cheer team.
A two-time Universal Cheerleaders Association All-American who began participating in the sport when she was 5 years old, Absher will soon take her passion to the collegiate level after signing her letter of intent on Monday to join the cheer squad at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. She is now the fourth member of Draughn’s cheer team — which won two state titles earlier this year — to sign with a college program since March.
“I was really drawn to it because of the Christian atmosphere,” said Absher of deciding to attend Liberty, where she will double major in event planning and professional creative services. “I love Jesus a whole lot, and he definitely is the center of my life, so getting to go to a university that displays that so well and represents the love of God to everyone around it was really important to me. … So now not only do I get to do what I love, but I get to do that and also glorify God at the same time at a really God-centered university.”
Absher added that she never expected to receive the opportunity to cheer in college. However, when fall arrives, she will officially become an NCAA Division I cheerleader under Liberty head coach Nicholas Thomason, who has been in his current position since 2021 after joining the Flames as an assistant in 2016.
Ballard first approached Absher during a stunt clinic hosted by the Flames this past September. He talked to her a bit and encouraged her to come back for subsequent clinics, which she did on several occasions before eventually making the team during tryouts for the 2026-27 academic year a couple of weeks ago.
“I’m super grateful,” said Absher of earning a spot on Liberty’s cheer team. She also thanked all of the coaches she has had over the past decade-plus, particularly former Draughn coaches Haley Proffitt and Heather Bost, for aiding her growth as a cheerleader.
“Mrs. Proffitt was the lead coach when I came to Draughn, and she showed me what it meant to really love cheerleading, and then Bost took over after that and continued to steward me and help me to understand,” stated Absher, who noted that Steven Rhoney at Cheer Energy in Hickory has also been “a really big help to me.”
According to Absher, Rhoney has “really pushed me and showed me that hard work takes time, but when you do hard work, you can achieve great things.”
Absher called helping the Wildcats’ cheer squad win a pair of state championships her best memories of competing at the high school level.
“Winning states was a really big goal that we had, and it just really brought our team together,” said Absher, who is also proud of having been named to the North Carolina Cheerleading Coaches Association All-State Team last summer. “It allowed us to experience what it really meant to have community with one another and to work hard to achieve it.”
