The cheer team won the 6A state cheer title with a final score of 97.85, the program’s first in school history. They were given their cheer routine during the first weekend of the school year, then had choreography camp that first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But they had been practicing for state cheer since April.
The preliminary rounds consisted of a fight song, band chant, and crowd leading. For the final performance they had a situational cheer. An announcer would call out a football game-day situation. From that they could either perform an offensive cheer or a defensive cheer.
Junior Jada Winfrey shares how the team got this far.
“This year we got this far because we really bonded as a team. After last year, when we didn’t make to finals due to a safety deduction that no one was aware of, we all really had a new fire within us,” Winfrey said. “We learned to find the positives and that every single effort matters. We ended each practice proud and reminded each other that every single effort really did matter.”
Senior Olivia Moore shares her biggest problem during the competition.
“Our toughest battle was keeping up the energy throughout the entire day,” Moore said. “But we kept up the positive attitude and supported each other.”
Winning a state title is a dream for most, as well as an achievement for Mill Valley. Winfrey shares her takeaway from this experience
“Attitude truly is everything, without a positive attitude we would not have had such a positive experience and such positive results,” Winfrey said. “I am so glad I got to experience this with all of my best friends. Each and every one of us was so deserving of this and I’m so glad that the results showed all of our hard work.
But cheer season isn’t done yet. The team still has a lot of training and preparation to do before going off to nationals in January. Moore shares her thoughts on the upcoming competition.
“It’s really hard to say how we will do because we have been so focused with state,” Moore said. But now it’s time to take our energy into nationals and bring home another big title.”
