Aberdeen valedictorian planning for college, LDS mission

Editor’s note: This is the third story in a weekly series spotlighting local students.

ABERDEEN — Makenna Pincock is a senior at Aberdeen High School. She is not only a member of the Aberdeen Tigers, she is the valedictorian of her class.

Pincock has been cheerleading since eighth grade. Though, she said, the real action and excitement associated with cheerleading doesn’t start until ninth grade.

She is a student body officer, a former member of the student government and the valedictorian of the Aberdeen High 2023 senior class. Being valedictorian, she said, has put some options before her once her time at Aberdeen concludes. All she knows right now, though, is that her immediate future will include college — at least for one year.

“I have a lot of options, I just don’t know where I want to go,” she said. “I am going to do college for a year, then I will go on an LDS mission.”

Pincock is uncertain about the path she will take as a college student. She does not expect to continue cheerleading in college.

With her time in a cheerleading uniform drawing near its end, Pincock said that she will miss the camaraderie the sport created — much like the one that has been built around anything in her small hometown.

“This is just such a nice community to grow up in — there’s such a big support system,” she said. “For cheerleading, for anything else I’ve done, there’s always just been a support system right there to help me through it.

Pincock says she will miss attending Aberdeen sporting events, and taking the field — or court — with her cheerleading team. In fact, when she graduates, she says she will miss the entire student body she has represented for four years.

“I love the students here, I’ve always felt so welcomed,” she said.