Cheerleaders

Earlier this month, our school's varsity cheer squad went to Albuquerque to compete in the State Spirit Competition. And this year they came away with the 1st place trophy!

We decided to surprise them as they came home that night by meeting them at the county line with almost all the village's fire trucks and the ambulance, lights on, sirens wailing, and gave them an escort to the school, where many parents and students were also waiting for their arrival. It was pretty cool to have a 1st place trophy at the school again. There have only been 2 in the last 10 years, and this is the 1st for cheering at our school (though we have had 2 second places before).

Sidelines during a boys basketball game.


Taking a breather after halftime
Timeout cheer
One thing that makes these girls so special is that over half of them are also basketball players. On game nights, those 5 have to go out and give there all for their game first (most of them are starters, too, not benchwarmers. One, a freshman, consistantly scores the most points as well. On Varsity. That same girl is also the only girl on the Varsity baseball team. She got a grand slam a couple weeks ago. These girls aren't wimps), then they have 20 minutes to clean up, change into their cheer uniforms, and come cheer the boy's game. See the girl with the leg brace on the right? She was hit by a TRUCK 2 years ago (before she moved here). In fact, points were deducted during their routines at State for the brace. And we STILL won!! Most of these girls are also in FFA (Future Farmers of America). The State FFA contest was held in Las Cruces the same week as the State Cheer competition. So some of these girls had to go to Cruces first, do their judging, then get their hineys up to Albuquerque for the cheer competition. Whew!!

What's really good is that none of these girls are going anywhere. No seniors, one junior. The rest are all 9th and 10th graders. There were 7 other schools in our division (1A).

And while we are on the subject of cheerleaders. These are the older half (4th and 5th grade) of the elementary squad that I coach. Well, some of them. There are about 12 girls, but I was focusing in on Shelby (cheerleader in the middle).

And here is the younger squad I coach (preschool-3rd grade). Ch'ree is in the back row, on the right.

Congratulations on winning State, Broncos!!!