On November 2nd, the Bob Jones competition cheerleading team won Regionals and got a bid to nationals to compete with multiple teams from many states. However, people don’t know how many injuries and problems they had before the first competition and throughout the competition season.

A week before the Regionals, one of the main bases dislocated their knee and we had to quickly replace them in the routine. However, in cheerleading, you can’t just replace someone. Each stunt group had worked together for months to hit all the skills in the routine. Now, with a new person in one of the stunt groups, they had to re-do months of work in one week. That stunt group ended up doing all the stunts at Regionals, except one that was replaced with a slightly easier skill.

About a week and a half ago, the cheer team went to Nationals in Orlando, Florida and placed fourth out of 60 teams in the nation. Although some people I surveyed don’t seem to think of this as an amazing accomplishment, most people do. In one of the questions, I asked if students believed that the cheer team gets enough recognition. It was mostly split between they get too much recognition, and they don’t get enough. Some students just said that cheer isn’t a sport and that the routine is “just a bunch of terribly spray-tanned girls jumping around”

Later in the same survey, I asked if they believed cheer was a sport. 80 percent of the students said it was, with 10 percent saying it wasn’t. The other 10 percent wasn’t sure if it was or not. However, most of these people did not see the routine (which is linked here). A cheerleader on the team, Emma Kate Lindsay, stated, “I think competition cheer is a sport because you have to be strong and have good stamina. People don’t realize how hard it is to do a two and half minute routine where you’re lifting up 100-pound girls and doing backflips with no time to breathe.” This routine is much harder than the previous years ,and it shows the progress they’ve made this year. Bob Jones cheer has not done this well in a long time. As a member of the team myself, I believe our success would not have been possible if it was not for our coach of the last two years, Ashley Mitchell.

In conclusion, Bob Jones cheer did amazing with their season this year and I believe the school has done a better job of recognizing them this year. Before you know it, Bob Jones cheer will be back to winning nationals every year.