After hours of repeated routines, countless fails, sweat and tears during practice, the White Station Cheer Team is given an opportunity to compete for the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) High School Nationals 2024, where the top featured high school teams from all across the country gather together. The Nationals take place from February 9th to the 12th at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Last year, 1,125 teams from 33 states competed in this highly-competitive competition.
“We see a lot of our surrounding schools from Memphis [and] even schools from Hawaii,” Danica Richmond (11) said.
To prepare for the Nationals, the cheer team has practice twice a week from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. As the day of competition gets closer and closer, coach Chelsea Snell is expecting them to avoid all kinds of distractions.
“We have to put our phones up so we can’t be distracted during practice,” Richmond said. “We run and workout at every practice and we go over the routine a million times.”
At practice, cheerleaders do walkthroughs where they break down the routine, record, and then watch it, similar to how football teams film to identify their strengths and strategies.
“We sit down and critique ourselves and see what we have to change or correct before we hit the nationals,” Snell said. “I think that we are our biggest critics so it’s important for us to learn and grow from ourselves.”
Cheerleading is often looked down upon by people who believe that a sport is characterized by exclusively physical contact or a ball. However, cheerleading is so much more than chanting along the football field.
“Cheerleading is not always given the respect it deserves as a sport so not only do I have to focus on the success of the athletes, I also work to ensure the cheerleaders get the respect they deserve from an outsider’s perspective,” Snell said.
Coach Snell started coaching 12 years ago, but she was also a cheerleader in highschool and in Eastern Michigan University as well. Her expectations for her cheerleaders are higher since she has been in their shoes before.
“She is really good at knowing what to look for and what to fix,” Addie Scoggins (10) said. “She has high expectations only because she knows we can do it.”
When the days are long and practices are tiring, the captains are whom the cheerleaders rely on.
“Our captains really enforce what our goal is, which is to win, so they help us to stay on our A game,” Richmond said.
Since cheer is a team sport, it enables people from multiple backgrounds with one common interest to come together and do what they love the most.
“We are like one big family,” Richmond said. “A lot of us have been on the team since we were in middle school so we are all really close outside of cheer.”
From making bracelets to having a run-way show with wrapping papers, the coach tries to do all kinds of team bonding activities because she highly values strong relationships.
“Team bonding is extremely important and we kind of lacked that in the years past but this year our team is so strongly bonded and I think that’s why they are successful,” Snell said.
Cheer competitions are often nerve racking to the underclassmen who have never competed, but Coach Snell uses her experience to better understand their stress as she has competed in many competitions.
“Our coach reassures us,” Richmond said. “Reassurance is a really big thing. She also makes sure that we are prepared.”
Besides making sure the team is ready for competitions, Coach Snell has a very unique way of letting go of anxiety.
“I also have a little tradition that I have incorporated,” Snell said. “Before we compete, I sprinkle some Spartan Spirit Dust in their shoes and say ‘all you do is a little faith, trust, and spartan spirit dust…’ for some reason it just does wonders.”
The coach’s love for her team has grown over the years and cheer being a year long sport is a plus.
“I just love this team and how hard they work,” Snell said. “It’s an honor to be able to coach people and make impacts on their lives. I’m so thankful for the opportunity that I have with them.”
