“Leave it all on the mat, push for three minutes, and give it all you have.” The Davie County Cheer teams rally behind this cry before running onto the mat to complete their routines. This year, after two consecutive years of victory, the state champions took the floor to add another state title.
During the past two cheerleading seasons, the Davie County High School Varsity Team took home the NCHSAA state title and was determined to deliver a repeat performance. This does not come easy, with the team working tirelessly through the end of August. This preparation goes through football season and many early mornings. They also faced many injuries throughout the season. The team was able to come in first or second place at all of their competitions, and they defended their state titles. While many have been on the mat before, including Riley Spaugh who described being a three-time state champion as “unreal,” some took the mat for the first time. Victoria Sheets, a senior on the team, competed for the first time and took home a state title in the same season.
“Winning states was such an amazing feeling.” Sheets shared. “It meant so much to me and it made me so proud of our team. I felt so much relief after being so nervous about whether or not we would win, and in that moment I realized that all of our hard work paid off.”
Returning to the program this year was a team entering into the Game Day division. Game Day Cheer is a division where the routine is based on material that would be performed at a game. The team competes in a band chant, a situational sideline, a cheer, and a fight song. In total, it is a three-minute-long routine judged on the overall execution of skills, and the ability to lead a crowd. The Game Day team competed at three competitions, coming in at 5th, 4th, and 2nd respectively. Half of the gameday team took the mat for the first time this year, including junior Ava Jane Tomlinson.
“Competing for the first time was definitely scary, but so fun,” Tomlinson shared. “It was over half the team’s first time competing ever, so it was a new experience for a lot of us. We all grew closer as a team and got to experience it together! I am so glad that I had this opportunity to compete!”
The Game Day team wasn’t entirely new to the mat; two of the seniors had previously competed on the high school traditional team. Avery Carter and Kaylee Brake helped lead this team, and while the mat wasn’t new some aspects of the routines were. Carter acknowledges the pros and memories of both.
“I loved my time on both teams,” Carter said. “I grew a separate attachment with both teams, with my teammates, and the experiences I got with each team. I was so proud of the accomplishments I made on traditional last year and winning states, since I had never competed before it was a huge win for me! But I loved getting to spirit and do the things I love on Game Day this year. It was definitely a fun way to end cheerleading for my senior year!”
Traditional cheer consists of 2 minutes and 30 seconds of competing where you jump, run and stand tumbling, and perform stunts and a pyramid. The team also does a cheer that engages the crowd during one section of the routine, which is a huge factor in final scoring. The routine is based on overall execution, skills involved, and how common those skills are, followed by the difficulty of stunting.
After states, the team started preparing for Nationals in Orlando Florida. When the team arrived in Florida, they were under more stress than expected. Three of the girls on the team had the flu but competed anyway. The team did not end up making it past the first round, but put in a good fight and grew throughout the season.
“We grew as a team through tougher comps and would consult each other and with victories celebrated together!” junior Alyssa Marion shared. “At nationals, we became really close and bonded watching other teams and discussing them and would all have fun at the parks together.”
