Cheerleaders may just seem like bubbly sideline entertainment at your favorite sporting event. However, when they face some of the best cheer teams in the country, their demeanor goes from friendly to fierce.

   Our competitive cheerleading team competed in the UCA National High School Cheerleading Championship. This tournament gathers top competition cheer teams from across the country to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.

    In the first round of preliminaries, the team received a score of 69.7 with a 1.5-point deduction. They fell about five points short of placement in the semi-final competition. Out of 20 available places in group A preliminaries, they placed in the bottom 50%.

   “We did not place how we had hoped. This is a brand new division for us because we have never competed at nationals being all-girl until this year. All-girl is a more difficult division,” senior Joslyn Magers said.

   Although they did not advance beyond the preliminary round, sophomore Carly Rowell was still thrilled with her team’s performance overall.  

   “I’m proud of my team no matter what. I wasn’t on the mat this year because I tore my ACL right before the season started. The result never mattered to me as long as they tried, did their best, and had fun,” Rowell said.

   For this team, making it to nationals was enough. After the passing of former coach Amy Barron earlier this year, coach Nikki Love set a goal.

   “The goal is to put something on the mat that would make her proud. If we can qualify for nationals in the process, that would be the icing on the cake because Disney was her favorite,” Love said.

   Some people don’t take cheer seriously or view the girls as eye candy. However, Magers believes there is so much more work that goes unrecognized.

   “I want Kickapoo students to understand what time and hard work we truly put in to compete in cheerleading. We put in countless hours of breathless non-stop 2:30 second routines in order to make it to this level. We are truly so much more than cute uniforms and pom poms.” Magers said.