Three cheers for victory

Gregory BoehmStaff WriterAmidst weekly basketball games, pep rallies, and other school events, most students fail to realize that Samo’s cheerleading teams not only perform at various school functions, but also practice rigorously to participate in CIF and nationwide cheerleading championships.This year, cheer has done exceptionally well in their various competitions. Cheer is composed of three individual competition teams: Gold, Blue and White. Gold is the small varsity advanced team, Blue is the large intermediate JV team, and White is the super freshmen novice team. All three teams competed in CIF competitions in December as well as United Spirit Association (USA) and Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) High School Cheerleading Regionals over the past few months.On Dec. 17, cheer’s CIF competition at the Home Depot Center was rained out, greatly affecting the amount of time the teams had to warm up. They were forced to perform on a small mat in a basement.“We usually get seven minutes to warm up, but we had about four and a half minutes,” cheer coach Amy Meadors said. “It was very congested and everyone felt really rushed.”Despite this setback, Gold and White earned first place and Blue earned second. According to Meadors, Gold’s performance was almost perfect. The Gold team beat Orange Lutheran and Tesoro, two nationally ranked teams in the area. Because Orange Lutheran placed seventh nationally at the UCA National High School Cheerleading Championship in Orlando, Florida last year, Samo’s future in the upcoming national competition looks promising.“I think most people on our team are naturally competitive, and we wanted to prove that we could still show what we could do given the circumstances,” junior and varsity captain Chloe Abarbanel said.Besides CIF, cheer also participates in regional competitions, some of which are qualifiers for the UCA high school cheerleading championships held in Orlando, Florida.“We have the most talent this year out of the past years,” senior gold co-captain Imani Barton said. “It’s a very talented, driven team, so I would expect us to have a very great year and rest of the season. Florida is going to be very tough for us just because we are the smallest team with a team of 11. In our division it’s usually teams of 12.”According to senior and gold co-captain Hayley Jones, the gold team was recently forced to amend their nationals routine because of the loss of a few teammates.“We changed our whole team around so we need all the practices that we can get,” Meadors said. “We will probably end up adding some weekend practices.”Cheer has also done exceptionally well in regional competitions. According to Jones, in a UCA regional competition earlier this year held in San Diego, Gold received second place, but only by a few points.The cheer teams also went to a USA regional competition at Augora Hills High School on Jan. 21. All three teams received first place.By placing in the top three at their regional competitions, the Gold team has qualified for UCA national championships in Orlando, and will be leaving to compete in Florida on Feb. 9. Despite the fact that the competition will be held at the Disney World Resort, the majority of their time in Florida will be spent practicing and preparing for their performance against other nationally ranked squads.Jones said that the teams are now practicing harder than ever, knowing that their biggest competition of the year is just one week away.Unfortunately, during one of the team’s most rigorous times of Gold’s season a fire erupted in the South Gym preventing them from using their normal practice area.“We’ve had practice everyday, but it’s now kind of messed up with the fire in the gym,” Barton said. “So we’re having intense practices late at night. Eight o’clock practices which kind of suck, but we have to do what we have to do to get to where we need to go.”Nationals do not mark the end of the cheer team’s season. Following nationals, Gold, Blue and White will compete in USA National high school cheerleading championships and West Coast Championships, both of which will be held in March. Until then, the Florida competition is the main event on their agenda.gboehm@thesamohi.com