After months of cheering for football games every Friday night, the cheer team’s sideline season is now behind them and they’re turning their attention to the start of the competitive cheer season.
Coming off a successful season last year — where they earned a CCS win and competed at nationals in Las Vegas — the team hoped to start the season off strong.
On Nov. 9, the cheer team competed at the Battle at the Capitol JAMZ (an independent cheer organization) competition held at the Roebbelen Center in Roseville; they placed fourth out of seven total teams.
Courtesy of Ivy Tian
Full cheer team Nov. 9 routine at the ‘Battle at the Capitol’.
With a final score of 91.90%, the team qualified for nationals — scoring over 70% at any JAMZ competition earns a qualification — despite not reaching their goal of “hitting zero,” or achieving all of their stunts successfully without point deductions from the judges. They received a deduction for a fall during a quarter cradle and a lack of stability coming down on the pyramid.
While they are still competing in the varsity non-tumbling category — which scores teams based on jumps, stunts and dancing — the team has changed up their overall routine flow drastically.
“We are doing a ‘Twilight Zone’-themed routine, so it’s very mysterious and upbeat,” head coach Brandy Fisher said.
In comparison to last year, the team has been upping their stunting difficulty, along with completely removing the cheering portion of their routines from last year.
“The stunts we are doing this year involve a little bit more of tossing people, as in cradles, but the cradles do one-fourth turns in the air and overall our routine involves more extensions and moving throughout the mat,” senior base Annaliese Shab said.
Since the start of September, the 12-member competitive team has been having 2-hour practices two times a week in addition to sideline cheer practices.
Courtesy of Ivy Tian
Cheer team practicing their stunts during practice on Oct 28.
Fisher also stated that the consistent practices over the summer, paired with an increase in conditioning, have been extremely beneficial to the team’s overall skill improvements.
This year, competitive team members did not have to participate on the sideline team. Additionally, the team is composed of seven seniors and five sophomores, compared to the mere three seniors last year. With the majority of the team being composed of seniors and nine of the 12 members being returners, the team has great depth in comparison to prior years.
Senior Ivy Tian, who is both flyer and base, said that even while being one of the few members without prior cheer experience, she has had an easy time catching up with the help from her teammates.
“It’s been pretty easy learning the routines and it was really only stunting that was more difficult because I’ve never had experience with that before, but the other seniors were really helpful with that,” Tian said.
Though the team is looking to start the season off strong, Fisher also noted the importance of continuing to refine their skills as the season progresses.
“By continuing our training and reading judges’ comments we will be able to grow stronger as a team and a program,” Fisher said.
As the team continues refining their routine, they are preparing for their next competition on Dec. 6, the Adrenaline JAMZ competition in Stockton, and the Branham Invitational competition at Branham High School on Dec. 7.
