The competition roster is made up of Haley Jones – Senior, Maddie Nicol – Junior, Morgan Hayes – Junior, Darius Jennings – Junior, Kaylee Lipus – Junior, Kyli Spencer – Junior, Kylee Hahn – Sophomore, Aubrey Stickney – Sophomore, Kale Dyer – Freshman, Cameron Frenk – Freshman, Alyssa Marlow – Freshman, Jillian Showalter – Freshman.
CHENEY – The Cheney Blackhawks cheer team is making their way to Washington's state cheer competition in Battle Ground Washington on February 4 and 5.
When most people think of cheerleading, they think of waving pom poms and cheering their home team on to victory. Throw in some flips and back handsprings and that's that. But most of people's preconception of cheerleading comes from sideline cheerleading, while competition cheer is an entirely different animal.
To make state, the competition team must hit a minimum score which is judged on the following criteria. The execution of dance, cheer, jumps and stunts. Along with execution, teams' routines are judged on a difficulty score for all four categories as well, according to Cheney cheer's head coach Curtis Lewis. The cheer group builds their competition routine at the beginning of the season and slowly picks it apart to refine it and sharpen it as the season progresses.
This season in particular has been more difficult than previous years to get the repetitions necessary to craft a routine worthy of making it to the state competition thanks to variety of obstacles COVID-19 has created from meticulous testing to absences. Since you never know how much practice the team might get from week to week, it's put a premium on the practice time the team does get, according to assistant coach Nikki Ray.
There have been instances where the competition team had to take the entire week off because of multiple positive test results for COVID-19. "In a limited schedule, you have to get the most out of practice Ray said. Practicing with purpose is important an any competitive sport but may be even more important in cheerleading because of the risk involved. The sport of cheerleading holds the number one spot for risk of catastrophic injury in high school sports due to the nature of stunting.
Stunting is when the cheer teams builds a base to either hoist a teammate into the air or throw them for a series of well-orchestrated flips before falling safely into their teammates arms. "When we get on the mat, everything else is off the mat," Ray continues, "we need you to trust each other and hold each other's lives in your hands, literally."
The biggest thing that separates competitive cheer from sideline cheer is the competition. Where the goal of sideline cheer is to rally the community, the goal of competition cheer is showcasing the best of your abilities in front of a panel filled cheerleading expertise.
The formula for a state winning cheer routine comes down to energy and execution. "A good routine just has really clean pictures and formations," Ray said. "Super high energy, decent difficulty, flawless execution is what you're looking for in a routine," Lewis said. Body language is a huge portion of the energy portion, judges want to see the effort and the energy exuding from a squad during their routine.
Coach Ray wanted to impart to the team that this is the last competition of the year and leaving everything on the mat will be crucial in brining home a state victory. "switching that mindset to let's put everything we can possibly put on that floor for the weekend of state."
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