Last week, the Bob Jones Competition Cheer team placed 2nd at their State competition. They did amazing, considering all their hard work and the differences of the season due to COVID-19. Sadly, the team will not be able to go to Nationals in Disney World this year. 

Last season, the team did phenomenally. They won regionals and got 4th out of 60 teams at Nationals. That season was started around March of 2019. The 2019-2020 season was the most successful Bob Jones competition cheer season in a very long time. They were on their way to winning Nationals the next year, but then tryouts were canceled in March for the 2020-2021 season. Trying to figure out everything that happened last year made it very confusing to know when the season should start and when the competitions were going to be this season. However, the coach, Ashley Mitchell, made the smart decision of waiting to have tryouts until June, to have a better understanding of the virus before starting a new season. Eventually, they did have tryouts, in June 2020. They started this season almost 4 months later due to COVID-19, and still won their Super-Regional competition and hit their routine with zero deductions at State.

Although they made the best they could of this season, there were many things that had to change. For the first few weeks of practice, stunting was not allowed because there was too much contact with other people. However, this gave the team more time to work on their tumbling. Even with missing 4 months of practice, the team still made up for it in time before Super-Regionals. After winning super-regionals, a few people on the team got quarantined due to being exposed to the virus. A sophomore cheerleader on the team, Emma Kate Lindsay, states, “This season was way different than last season because we only got to compete in two of the four competitions that we normally get to compete in. We also had to rearrange our routine a lot, which can happen normally if people get hurt, but this year it happened because many people got quarantined.” This forced the team to have to miss the Regional Competition, which is a qualifying competition for Nationals. With so many people getting quarantined, there was no time to do a virtual regional competition either. So, sadly, the team did not get to compete at Regionals and can not compete at Nationals in April. However, this will help them get prepared for the next season months earlier than all the other teams.

Next season is going to start very soon. Tryouts will be the first week of March and there will be a 4-day tryout clinic with tryouts being the day after. Having tryouts so early will help the team be much more prepared for competition season next season. Hopefully, this will lead to them winning Nationals and getting white jackets. The plan this season is to work harder than all of the previous seasons. Coach Ashley Mitchell is very determined to be even better than they already are next season.

Tryouts are going to be March 5th with the tryout clinic being March 1-4th. If you’re planning on trying out, make sure to attend the tryout clinic as well as the tryout! You can email [email protected] for a tryout packet.