After a long, challenging start to the cheer season, the young athletes prevailed. Using every football game, cheer class, after school practice, early morning practice, and get togethers outside of school to rehearse for their biggest competition, state. The UIL Spirit State Championship is one of the largest cheer contests hosted within Texas. 

Preparing for the competition required the focus and dedication of every cheerleader to hit every move in sync with the beat to ensure their success before they arrived. The team placed in the middle of the over 80 teams that arrived to compete. It was not as high as they hoped, but the team was proud of their hard work and dedication leading up to the event. 

“Majority of our practices getting closer to state consisted of ‘full outs’,” senior Katie Leggett said. “We would run our routine as if we were on-stage competing.” 

Practicing for this major event takes weeks of preparation and hard work from these young student athletes. 

“Practice consisted of a lot of our time,” senior Chelsie Forrester said. “We would do the routine multiple times a practice making sure that everything was perfect.”

Within every season comes a series of highs and lows, but for these cheerleaders they expect the unexpected and come ready to compose routines constructed to win. 

“For me the most memorable part of the competition was when the team went out to eat, and we got to save a souvenir from the restaurant,” Leggett said. “Although we have had a lot of changes throughout this season, we were able to lead the team through all of its ups and downs which gave us more opportunities to accomplish our goals.” 

As the season comes to an end, memories and blessings fill the team with joy and thanks to those that helped to make it happen. 

“We were blessed with two amazing coaches this year,” Forrester said. “They made this season truly memorable and this is one of the best season’s this team has had.”