On November 17th, the Millard West Varsity Competition team competed at their first competition of the season, the Mid America Extreme Challenge.

Varsity took first place in the tumbling division. In addition, the team was able to get their bid for their tumbling routine to go to Nationals in Orlando, Florida, in February.

“Knowing that we have a bid to nationals puts us in the mindset of improving and working harder,” sophomore Camryn Wallace said. “Our goal is to win two white jackets for the tumbling and game-day routine, so we are putting in the extra work to hopefully achieve this goal.” 

The cheer team competes in two divisions each season; Tumbling and Game Day. Unlike any other season, the team plans on getting bids for both of their routines for Nationals. While still preparing their game-day routine to be Nationals ready, the team only competed their tumbling routine at this competition. 

This routine started off with various standing tucks across the dark blue nine-panel mat along with multiple cartwheel layouts going towards the center of the mat. It continued with jumps connecting to tucks. 

Then followed a cheer to show their pride for the school, the girls shouted for the crowd to “get wild for the Cats.” The cheer portion finished off with the emphasis of the school colors with the use of poms and signs. It ended with a dance portion as well as a few more synced twisting tumbling skills to add a wow factor. 

“I felt good about the performance, it was a huge step up from our first showcase the week before,”senior Morgan Mcdonnell said. “We were much more confident at this performance. I think that we were just excited to go out and show people what we can do. There is still a lot of improvements we can do, we definitely need to perform stronger and just bring the audience in.”

While still working on the tumbling routine for the upcoming season, the team prepares to perform their game-day routine for the first time. 

The gameday division gives the girls the opportunity to showcase what traditional cheerleading is all about. 

“We have two routines at our next comp, so we just need to go out there strong and confident,” Mcdonnell said. “We have worked so hard all July through October, so now is our time to show everyone what we are capable of doing since we are going for a game day bid.

The teams in this division get evaluated on their ability to lead the crowd, proper gameday skill incorporations, motion and overall choreography of the routine.

It begins with a band dance, then following a situational football cheer where the team will cheer on the offense or defense. At the end of this routine, a dance is performed incorporating motions and jumps to the Millard West Fight Song. 

“The team really loves to do game day routines at competitions, head coach Stefanie Lane said. “It’s a much different pace from our traditional routines, so they have a lot of fun with it. We are looking forward to doing the routine in front of the judges and receiving valuable feedback so we can make necessary changes for the rest of the reason.”

In the span of the competition season, the varsity team will continue to work on both of their routines, the team will progress towards their overall goal of winning two national titles as well as white jackets. The team will be competing December 8th in Kansas City in hopes of getting their second Nationals bid.