She appeared to be losing her lifelong battle with health problems as a result of a severe head injury she suffered when she was 3. Tammy Kohlert, her mother, couldn’t discount that. She even got paid as a home health- care nurse to take care of her daughter. Lacee had seizures and migraines. She had breathing problems. She takes 23 different medications.

Even so, some of the more than 270 hours she missed at Northridge last year weren’t just because she didn’t have the strength to go. It was more like she didn’t want to go. Lacee smiled a lot and had an uncanny resemblance to Taylor Swift, but she also had the mentality of a 9-year-old and needed special education classes. She felt out of place. When she went through the hallways to her next class, no one said hi to her.

This year is different, and Kohlert points to one reason: Lacee is on the Northridge cheer squad.

Ramiro Rivera is the school’s new coach, and he decided right away to open it to anyone. He set out a table at registration and encouraged anyone to try out.

Tryouts were more of a reality check than a measure of how many flips they could pull off. Rivera just wanted to make sure the kids knew what they were getting into. Rivera, after all, cheers for the University of Northern Colorado – this year is his fourth – and he had similar standards for his Northridge squad. They would have to work hard, for three hours almost every day after school.

Even though some of the kids had no tumbling experience and tripped themselves during cartwheels, he would teach them how to tumble, how to cheer and how to do stunts, meaning, yes, they would throw (and theoretically catch) each other after a toss.

More than 50 tried out and, after weeding themselves out mostly because of other commitments, he’s got more than 35 on the squad.

Last year’s coaches had already put Lacee on this year’s squad, Kohlert said, but Rivera’s mentality made her feel like an important part of the team. Kohlert has seen other special education kids on cheerleading squads who cheer on their own, in a corner, and that’s fine. Lacee, however, is a contributing member. She’s just like everyone else, and that’s huge for her.

Lacee needs more time to learn a new routine, maybe even twice as long, but the other kids will pull her aside to help her, her mother said. One of the leaders, Yuliza Martinez, a senior, doesn’t seem to mind giving Lacee the extra attention. Rather than worry about the quality of the squad dipping – this is her fourth year – she actually prefers the open door policy.

“It’s fun for everyone,” Yuliza said, “and that’s what makes it great.”

Lacee feels more, well, normal now. The other students say hello to her in the hallways. Some of the students on the squad don’t even know she has special needs. Despite feeling more accepted, Lacee doesn’t want to hide it.

“I want to be a bridge between the special needs kids and the others,” Lacee said. “People know me better, and that’s fun for me.”

Lacee also doesn’t seem to have as many health problems this year. Maybe her meds are working more, but her mother doesn’t think so. It’s not that Lacee still doesn’t struggle at times to get out of bed. It’s just that now she has a reason to do it.