The competitive cheer team recently won first place on December 6th at a USA competition, which is held by an organization, marking a season of hard work and dedication, competitive cheer coach Macey Williams said.
In order to qualify to nationals the team needed 80 points to qualify for nationals, Williams said.
“This year we scored between 93 and 95,” Williams said.
Last year, we qualified as well because we earned 80 points, but this year, we’ve been scoring higher than we were last year, Williams said.
“This victory qualifies them for nationals, something the team has been preparing for since November,” Williams said. “Nationals is from Feb. 19-22 held at the Anaheim Convention Center.”
We perform a cheer, and then we perform a dance routine with stunts, Williams said.
“The routine has jumps, stunts, and everything,” Williams said. “And we get scored with points on all of those, and we got the highest overall score, so we got first place.”
The team practices four days a week for two to three hours and competes almost every Saturday, Williams added.
“Many people say that cheer is not a sport, but if you see these girls and how much motivation, time, effort, and training they put into it is a lot of conditioning,” Williams said.
We go to little competitions every week in order to prepare for nationals, Williams said.
“Every week we take the same general routine, and we up the routine,” Williams said. “We make it harder and add more skills.”
Qualifying for nationals really means a lot because we’ve been working so hard throughout the whole season, Tucker said.
“There’s been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of people getting hurt, and just a lot of hard work,” Tucker said. “And so seeing that hard work pay off means a lot to us.”
Cheer is also a sport that helps you get a lot of trust, Tucker added.
“As a flyer, I have to trust my bases completely that they won’t drop me,” Tucker said. “That trust builds friendships too; we bond so much because of it,” she added. “I just want to say that I love my teammates.”
Trust is such a huge thing because cheer is a very trust-heavy sport, flyer and junior Valerie Bui said.
“You kind of have to trust the people around you and really have these bonds,” Bui said. “Without trust, there will always be that fear of injuring yourself.”
We also have many team bonding activities at practice to help the girls trust each other, Williams said.
“Also, at summer camp, they room together, and I think they bond through that as well,” Williams said. “We do a lot of games, and everyone trusts each other,” she added.
In cheerleading, it is important to trust yourself as well, Bui said.
“You really have to put yourself out there and have confidence in yourself,” Bui added.
I have to sacrifice a lot of my time to cheer and manage school at the same time, competitive cheerleader and junior Lisa Tucker said.
“Last night I was doing today’s math homework so that I could really be on top of my work and have no missing assignments,” Tucker added.
I know after school students might take a nap or eat some food, but when I don’t have practice, I have that time to go home and do my homework, Tucker said.
“I have to immediately start my homework because I know that opportunity doesn’t come a lot,” Tucker added.
