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U.S. Air Force Sgt. David Baxter walks into the gymnasium with purpose. Dressed in his camouflage battle dress uniform, his arms swing in a march cadence; his hat is in his hand. The troops are in formation, doing push-ups.

Back on their feet, they again practice sounding off, and this time, they better get it right. They can do push-ups all day as far as he's concerned.

Row by row Baxter paces, hands clasped behind his back, his combat boots clashing with the lacy low-top socks of the troops. Each one gets an icy stare. He stops, leaning his ear just inches from the face of Sabrina Villanueva.

"Palo Verde. Titans," she shouts.

Baxter frowns, sticking his index finger in her gut, then lifts his eyebrows as if to say, "Is that all you got?"

Sabrina's eyes go wide.

"Palo Verde!!! Titans!!!" she roars.

Baxter, 33, is better known as Coach Dave here, where he is off duty from the Air Force and a volunteer assistant coach for the Palo Verde High School Titan cheerleading squad.

He huffs, unimpressed with Villanueva's effort, but it's better.

He moves down the line, then pauses next to his wife, head coach Sam Baxter, who is the only paid member of the coaching staff. If Coach Dave is the disciplinary muscle of the team, Coach Sam is the brains, and together they have brought structure to a struggling cheerleading program, making it a source of school pride and a training ground for life to the girls on the squad.

"We don't sugarcoat." — Coach Sam

Sam Baxter, 32, came to Tucson when her husband, Sgt. David Baxter, was assigned to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in August 1997. They have been lucky to be stationed at just one base in his career. As a mechanic for the C-130 aircraft, he is at a "dead end base" and he is now an instructor.

They have two sons, 13-year-old Dehendrick "Dee" Baxter and 9-year-old David "Chris" Baxter, who both work as managers of the squad, fetching water bottles or running errands.

In 2007 Sam, active in Rising Star Baptist Church, met a Palo Verde cheerleader there who told her the squad had lost its coach. They weren't sure there was going to be a squad.

Just go by and check it out, the student asked.

Sam had cheerleading and dance experience dating to her childhood in Mississippi, but she had never coached. Twice she'd been captain of her squad. Her senior year in high school, she was named to the Universal Cheerleading Association All Stars and would have gone to London with the team had she not fallen ill.

She nearly made the squad at Itawamba Community College in Fulton, Miss., and instead was on the dance team.

She was well-rounded during high school. She was the first African-American air rifle state champion of Mississippi, ran track and was involved in ROTC, drama and modeling. Apparently a good fit for Palo Verde.

She was hired as a part-time coach, a post that last year paid her the equivalent of an assistant football coach's earnings for two seasons, since she would be coaching in both the fall and spring.

The captains of the squad welcomed her, then told her that they would handle tryouts and teaching new girls the cheers and routines.

Um, no.

"I," she recalls emphasizing, "will teach you the cheers. And then I will teach you the dance."

Everyone would try out — no favorites, no guarantees. On tryout day she set the tone for a new approach.

"If you think this is a popularity contest, leave now. I don't need you. I don't need beauty queens, I don't need stuck-up people, and if you are any of those things, leave now or forever hold your peace."

Palo Verde's assistant principal and athletic director were standing behind her and met the new coach with what Sam says was a surprised gaze, seeming to say, "This is going to be good."

The squad wasn't used to having someone around with a strong background in cheerleading, she says. The expectations took some getting used to, as well.

Most of the girls didn't know how to do push-ups. So Coach Sam dropped and showed them how to do a proper push-up. "There," she said. "Now give me 20."

"By no means did I want to do this." – Coach Dave

Teenage girls, cheerleading, crying, emotion, makeup.

Dave was not interested in any of these things.

That's Sam's deal, and he'd let her handle it. When she asked him to come to practice to help out with discipline, it was a hard sell.

"I wanted nothing to do with this," he says.

After some persuading, he agreed to see the 2007 team in practice. When asked what he thought after watching the first cheer, he replied, stoned-faced, "I think that looked like crap."

No sugarcoating. No kid gloves. Once he decided to become a part of the coaching staff, it stayed that way.

In the beginning, the edge was hard, and the abrasiveness that he carried was straight military.

"You're going to have to work together to get a smile out of my face," he would say.

An 11-year career in the service has instilled in him and his family the standard of doing things with structure, professionalism and getting it right — the first time.

"What I do with the airmen is exactly what I do with the girls," says Coach Dave.

That extends to how he handles the emotions of teenage girls, as well. Simply, he doesn't put up with it.

"No, no, no. I could care less about you crying," he tells them. "But if you have a problem, we can talk about that."

"When you need someone and don't have anybody, they're there for you." – Palo Verde senior and football player Chris Campbell

Before long, the Baxters' no-nonsense approach started to work. The squad took shape. The cheers were better, the girls stronger. The 2007 cheer team finished one-tenth of a point away from reaching the state finals. In 2008, the pom line, in its first year of existence and led by assistant coach Paulina Vasquez, finished just one place away from going to state.

Beyond strength in cheering, something else happened. They became family. The 2008 competition cheer and dance teams combined a total of 23 girls. There are 12 African-Americans, six Hispanics (including one Puerto Rican), four Anglos and one Filipino/German. All of them consider themselves sisters.

"What sets us apart at Palo Verde is that we're a family 24-7 all year round," says junior Keyra Paden. In August, when she turned 16, the entire squad was at her birthday party at El Con Mall.

The girls are inseparable on campus and off, and are expected to stand up for one another. After each practice, everyone gathers around to touch base with Coach Sam and Coach Dave, if he is able to be there.

"How are we doing today?" they ask each girl. "I got a boyfriend!" says sophomore Virginia Bemer one day. Coach Sam plays it up, applauding and jumping along with the other girls.

The pair of coaches tag-team seamlessly as they check in with the other girls.

"How 'bout you? You get that thing taken care of with your grades? Get with us later on that."

"You cool? You sure?"

"How 'bout you?"

One day, after breaking their daily prayer huddle, the girls scramble for cupcakes to recognize another birthday while Coach Sam holds La Shia Simmons, who is in tears. Trouble at home. Katrina Gregory lives up to her nickname, "Momma," as she clutches her chest from across the room, then slowly walks over, gently leans her head on La Shia, and wraps her arms around both of them without saying a word.

"I have a huge amount of respect for them," football player Chris Campbell says of the Baxters.

Chris is one of several football players who gather at the practices to see friends or girlfriends, but also the Baxters. They call them "Coach," too.

Last spring, when Chris was having severe problems at home, it was Dave who helped him through his situation.

"He was that father figure for me," Chris says. "He told me the things that I didn't want to hear, but it's what I needed to hear."

Eventually Chris moved out to live with a friend and says that his situation is night-and-day better now. He spent the holidays with his family and plans on playing Division II football at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M.

The Baxters are available to everyone. Coach Dave learned to text so that he could keep up with the girls, and Coach Sam says that all the girls have one "get out of jail free card," meaning that at any time, anywhere, if they're in a bad situation, they can call or text them and be picked up from wherever they are and be taken home, no questions asked.

"I know what's going on with them all the time," Coach Dave says. "Some of it we don't even want to know, but there are no secrets."

More than once, the Baxters have responded to calls in the middle of the night, even going to students' houses to settle issues with parents.

"The student sits on one side of the room, the parents on the other. We sit in the middle and we work it out," Coach Sam says.

"I base all of my decisions on cheering." — My'esha Sherfield

The captains are going over the week's issues following practice. My'esha Sherfield has been working on figuring out why rumors are floating around about her messing around with multiple guys at school.

"Serious as a heart attack, let me explain relationships," Coach Sam says. "You don't see Coach Dave and I doing anything inappropriate out here or anywhere else. Let me tell you why."

"There's a time and a place for everything," Dave steps in.

"Time and a place," Sam says.

My'esha continues to challenge them, question, try to figure it out.

Last year she probably would have blown it off. She was angry at everything. Her home life was rocky, she partied, she was strong-willed and definitely not interested in conversation.

"She was rough around the edges," Dave says.

Dave took her head-on.

If she pushed, he pushed harder. She had attitude, he had attitude. They formed a bond.

The Baxters are tough on the girls, but My'esha learned why.

"I don't even party no more, at all," she says.

"You can't really be all making out with your boyfriend in front of the whole school. Cheerleaders are kind of stereotyped as (easy), and we're just trying to change that."

She went from being on the fringes to being second in command of the entire squad. When lead captain Naomi Henderson couldn't make it to the football game against Catalina High Magnet School, My'esha took over responsibilities for the squad.

"Words cannot explain how proud I am of her," says Coach Sam.

"She's come a long, long way," Coach Dave says.

"It's not just about cheerleading, it's about the girls." – Coach Dave

The Baxters are committed beyond practices, games and competition. They don't leave campus until everyone has been picked up. Dave mixes all of the music for the competition routines in his home sound studio. They've attended school plays, graduations, birthday parties and even talked to the police when some of the girls were threatened by other students.

They have canceled performing at basketball games when many of the girls had a lot of homework to do. And after cheering until 10 p.m. at a football playoff game on a Friday night in November, the squad met at the high school at 4 a.m. the next morning to take a bus to Phoenix to compete in the Arizona Interscholastic Association Spiritline State Qualifiers.

Taking the extra steps gets both them and their program noticed. Assistant Principal Larry Martinez has been at the school for about six months and oversees all activities and athletics. "She's been a boon for the entire athletic department," he says of Coach Sam.

"She works well with the other coaches, and they have instilled a structure and discipline to the program that wasn't there before.

"A lot of times cheerleading is really not a sport by itself. With the competitions they do and the level of physical fitness the girls have, they've helped to make it a real sport."

That extends to an impact on the whole school, Martinez says. "The girls are very respected. They're the kind of kids that you want on your campus."

So what do the coaches get out of it?

"I'm not coaching a cheerleading squad," Coach Sam says. "I'm making young women.

"It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I want to make sure that when somebody comes up to them at some point and says, 'I don't like the way you're doing things,' that they don't cry. I want them to say, 'Show me a better way.' "

Assistant Coach Luke Gray says he has seen his daughter, senior Ashley Gray, break out of her shell into an outgoing and confident person.

"That's what I'm most proud of," he says. "It's the level of performance that they carry themselves. Not just academically, but as ladies."

All of the girls are expected to go to college. When they make the squad, Coach Sam lets the parents know that. All of last year's four seniors attend Pima Community College with a scholarship. Two have academic scholarships, one has a track scholarship, and the other has a diversity scholarship. It's not about controlling who they become or what they do, Coach Dave says, it's more about holding them to a higher standard. You don't have to become a doctor or a lawyer, but if you're going to do something, be the best.

"You can be a garbage man," he says. "But be the best garbage man there is. Be famous for being a garbage man."

As a couple, the Baxters hope they can provide an example for how a man and woman should be together, and they handle themselves the same at practice as they do at home, leading by example. And now that the precedent has been set, there is no backing away.

"I came from not wanting to do this," Coach Dave says, "to the point where it is required of me to do this. And I actually like doing it. They're like my daughters now."

"If I can reach just one," says Sam, "then it makes it all worth it. Ain't enough money in the world to take away that feeling."

"They are going to be somebody. I won't take nothin' less." – Coach Sam

Keyra is on the verge of tears. The Palo Verde junior is about to hear her name called to compete in the solo category of the official Fiesta Bowl Championships in Phoenix. She's not even supposed to be here. Only two days ago she was tapped to replace team captain Naomi, who was unable to compete due to a work commitment.

Now she's moments away from possibly making a fool of herself in front of the all the competitors, and that makes her nervous. She's confused because she's never done this before, doesn't know how many cheers or chants she should do.

Coach Sam didn't give her much of a choice. Keyra is a co-captain. It is up to her to step it up, but it's frustrating. She's a mess.

She decides to ditch one of the chants — too much and she'll lose the crowd. Her name sounds over the speakers, and a smile replaces the tears. Keyra jumps higher than Coach Sam has ever seen her jump. Her cheers are thunderous and the crowd falls for her.

Keyra wins her division, and following a final round is crowned the 2008 Fiesta Bowl Cheer Champion, awarded a trophy, flowers and a sash bearing her newly owned title.

It goes to show, Coach Sam says. Obedience pays. Two years ago Keyra wouldn't have had it in her to hold herself together. She would have broken down or been too physically exhausted to perform in the finals. But she's not the same since Coach Sam and Coach Dave came to Palo Verde. None of the girls is.

In the end, it all comes down to family. "I love those girls to death," Coach Sam says. "They my babies. They're the girls I never had."

Experience more of the Titan cheer squad and its practices at the audio slide show online at azstarnet.com/multimedia