FHS Cheer Competition
The Farmington High School Cheer team had attended the state competition before, but they finished in the top five this year! The competition was located at Drury State University in Springfield. They have participated in this same competition before. This year, the competition was on February 23rd, and many other cheer teams competed against FHS.
Tia Cunningham is the Farmington cheerleader coach. This is her first year at Farmington, but she has previously coached. Cunningham talks about how the cheerleaders did in the competition on February 23rd. The competition consists of 2 different competitions: performance and game day.
“Performance competition: We perform a 3-minute routine. We have a max of 1 minute to cheer. The other 2 minutes are with music. During the 2 minutes, we have certain stunts, pyramids, tumbling, and jumps that we are scored on,” said Cunningham. “Game day competition: We are allowed 3 minutes to do our Band Chant, Cheer, and Fight Song. This one is similar to what we do at a game.”
“Training is hard for cheerleaders because we have to use our time wisely during our competition seasons, we are also coming up with timeouts for football or basketball games, along with learning our performances.” Cunningham announced, “We go over our scoresheet to make sure we are doing everything we can to score to the highest of our ability. We continue to do it full out and hit zero as many times as we can. Hitting zero means all of our stunts and tumbling hits.”
Cunningham and her cheerleaders worked hard throughout the cheerleading season, working towards competition while cheering during football and basketball seasons at the same time.
“I really enjoy cheer competitions, there is so much excitement walking onto the mat with hundreds of people watching you and supporting you while you do your routine,” said Isabella Roberson, a freshman cheerleader. “There is so much more to competing than the actual competition. We get to meet new teams and make new friends. Working with the coaches and my other teammates during cheer, comp week, especially, just shows how much a group of people can become a family bonded by our love for cheer. ”
“I enjoyed getting to ‘pin’ all the other cheer girls and teams. It shows the sportsmanship of cheer and how all the cheerleaders support each other, no matter what team they are on. It really uplifts and creates bonds between teams. While competing the other teams don’t boo or make fun like most sports, but they cheer you on and support you no matter how good or bad you do and I think that is my favorite part of competition.”
Pinning is when cheerleaders decorate clothespins, normally with a positive saying on them. They then try to “pin” the other cheerleaders with their clothespins without them knowing, that way it’s a surprise when they find it.
Cunningham has many favorite parts of cheerleading, but she makes it clear that competition is her overall favorite because of the girls coming together and seeing the effort they put in.
“My favorite part is seeing them work together, becoming a team, watching them take the floor, hyping each other up. I could go on and on about all of the things I love about competition,” said Cunningham. “We love cheering at football and basketball games, along with helping with pep assemblies and other events through the community, but competition is the time the girls get to shine. To see love, hard work, and determination all come together is the BEST part about competition.”
Cunningham wants to grow the cheerleaders’ knowledge of scoring in the competitive world. She plans to have them learn more about the score sheet and how the judges work.
“I feel like my main goal this year was to teach the team about the scoresheet and what judges are looking for. Now that they understand the scoresheet better, they are even coming up with ideas for this upcoming season,” said Cunningham. “This year, I feel like we didn’t have a set-in-stone strategy. Since this was my first year coaching at Farmington, my goal was to do the best that we could. We looked over their score sheet from last year. Then, as a coach, I figured out what areas of the scoresheet we needed to work on the most. We did an amazing job this year. We know some things we need to work on, and are already making plans on how to fix those things for this upcoming year.”
“I learned that I can always find room for improvement. I think I could work on my motions and try my best to get them as sharp as I can,” said Roberson. “I also think I could do a better job on crowd involvement. Since we have such a good student section during basketball and football games, it’s much easier during school games than it is at competitions.”
“Before our competition, we all just try to have a good attitude and not let our nerves get to us. After the competition, when we are waiting for our placements, it is so suspenseful. Our whole team sits together and waits for our name to be called. It’s such an unreal moment when we finally got called and we placed so well. All of us start celebrating together and just having a good time,” said Roberson. “Even when we don’t place as well, we still don’t let it ruin our mood, we stay positive and celebrate the place we got.”
Now the cheer season is over. Tryouts for next season are being held on Monday, April 14th. If you want to try out, you have to fill out paperwork that you can find in the athletic office and turn it in. Tryouts will be held in the old gym.
