Cheer is a sport that takes discipline, difficulty, execution, technique, synchronization, and team spirit. Competition cheerleaders have been perfecting their routine and making changes since May. The big day is finally here, and they are in Disney for Nationals today.
Nationals is a competition where High School competition cheerleaders compete against teams from all over the country. The competition is split into three days. The competition team will be competing today Jan 29. If they make it, the Semifinals are the following day, and Finals are on Feb 1.
“We have added more difficulty in our stunts back in. It is really important that all of our stunts are very clean and hit without any bobble. So throughout the season we have worked on those skills so that the more difficult stunt could hit perfectly by Nationals. More stunts have been added to the Fight Song portion of our routine as well, which adds a new visual as well as some difficulty. We have also added new and additional props. We upgraded all of our flags and added megaphones. It makes a huge difference,” Coach Hayli Habig said.
Changing parts in a routine is common in cheer. Improving and taking feedback from judges to make the routine better will make the teams chances higher for better scores.
“Sophia and I are flyers, and the whole point of the routine is to be energetic and hype. So as flyers, it’s hard to be jumping around while in a stunt for the majority of the routine. We have added us having megaphones and hitting the crowd more during the cheer section in the routine. This allows us to be able to get higher crowd involvement and execution points which will hopefully get us to Day two,” junior Colbie Jones said.
Sometimes, changing moves can improve the routines execution and looks.
“This year, we added a lot of props to our routine like flags, signs and megaphones. These have really helped our routine be more appealing to judges and our audience because the props encourage spirit. It may not seem important to change flags and things like that, but getting new flags has helped us a lot and also helped us learn along the way. Our old flags at the beginning of the routine were way too heavy and made it hard for the flag girls to use to the fullest potential. Because of this, we ordered new flags and new flag polls which look so much better and will overall help our scores,” senior Ava Augustine said.
Watching film is not just for contact sports.
“Something we have added that might not seem like much of a difference is stunts to the Fight Song section. Since it is the Fight Song section of our routine, it would be difficult to add things since the Fight Song has always been the same for years and years. At choreography, our choreographer changed the Fight Song a little and added new ripples and movements to spice it up. We also changed it recently after watching film, we added stunts to it to make the visual better,” Coach Habig said.
Every second matters in a routine.
“To prepare for Nationals, we have worked really hard on cleaning up the small things like timing and spacing. We also spent a lot of time on spiriting in between the sections to make our transitions as clean and good as possible,” Jones said.
Hard work does pay off.
“It feels so exciting and very special. I am so proud of our team. They have been putting in crazy hard work since May. Our goal all season has been to make it to Nationals, so even back in summer practices, we really raised our expectations of ourselves at practice. We implemented a timed mile to help with stamina, and we have put in more hours practicing than ever before. The girls have really earned this opportunity. It feels very special to me because the last coach to take a team to Nationals was my mom and it’s very cool to follow in her footsteps,” Coach Habig said.
Having an accomplishment that has been a goal for a long time can be very fulfilling.
“It feels really cool to get to be a part of a team that is going to Nationals and especially since a team hasn’t been since the 90’s. It definitely makes you feel accomplished and proud of the team to have met our goal of qualifying and finally getting to see our hard work pay off,” Jones said.
Performing their best the moment it counts is the goal for the cheerleaders.
“I of course think the team has what it takes to advance to Semifinals on Day 2. We have to come in focused and ready to apply all the training we have been doing over the last several months. The competition will be tough. 57 teams will be competing on Day 1 and only 21 advance. We will really need to lock in. But I believe in this squad,” Coach Habig said.
It’s important to give one hundred percent effort during the whole routine because in the end it will pay off.
“I think we will perform really well in our first round and hopefully that can get us to the next round, but given the amount of teams we are against, it will really be up to how much effort we give in and hope that it is enough for us to move on,” Jones said.
The team is confident that if they hit a perfect routine they can make it to the Semifinals.
“I think our team will do well at Nationals. It’s hard to say because I’ve never been and I’m not sure what the competition will look like, but if our practices continue to go well and our routine is clean, I don’t think there is anything that would stop us from progressing,” Augustine said.
