Coming back from Nationals, the Millard West Cheer team only had one thing on their mind: redemption. State would be their final performance of the season as well as an opportunity to make a comeback from getting second for their nationals performance.

On February 15th, The Millard West Varsity Competition team had their last competition of the season at State in Grand Island. The team competed in Class A for two divisions ‘Game Day’ and ‘Non-Building’.

The first routine the competed was in the Game Day division, a category that showcases what traditional cheerleading is all about. The teams were evaluated on their ability to lead the crowd, proper gameday skill incorporations, motion and overall choreography of the routine.

The performance started off with a Band Chant to the song ‘Eat Em Up’. In this portion they showed their band dance, that coach Stefane Lane created. Band dances are usually a combination of various motions, a tuck and a few words that are shouted by the team to help get the crowd involved.

Then a situational sideline cheer is called by the announcer where they have to decide whether they are cheering for offense or defense. After senior Grace Risley called out the cheer, the team cheered on the Wildcat offense with their use of signs, poms and stunts. They finished off with a combination of motions and jumps to the school’s well known Fight Song to emphasize their school spirit.

“We have only competed our game day routine at three other competitions and to compete it at state can be nerve racking just because it’s not as prepared as our other one,” senior Grace Risley said. “Overall, I think that as long as we give it our all we will be successful in the end.”

Just hours later the team went back to the warm up room to prepare their last routine for the judges; their tumbling routine.

This routine started off with various tumbling passes across the dark blue nine panel mat along with multiple jumps to a tuck. It continued with a cheer to show their pride for their school, in the cheer the girls shouted out that Millard West is “the home of the best,” and finished it off with emphasizing the school colors with poms. It finally ended off with a dance portion as well as a few more synced tumbling skills to add a wow factor.

“Compared to our routine that we performed at Nationals, we definitely redeemed ourselves,” sophomore Brooke Miller said. “ I had a good feeling about overall placements.”

As awards were handed out and it came down to the final placements it was down to Millard West and Millard North for the Class A tumbling routine. In the end West came out victorious:winning by seven points ahead. In the Game Day category, the top two teams were Millard West and Elkhorn South. The girls brought home another state win and won the division by eight points.

In the end the cheer team brought home two more state titles and brought more recognition to the school as well as the cheer program.