Cheerleaders compete in national contest

Posted by the Bells on Jan 24, 2018

The Crusader cheerleading team has returned from their competition in Orlando, Florida from January 12-18 to support our basketball and sports teams for the rest of this year. The cheer team came away with 8th place, out of fourteen other contestants in their division.

While the team has previously gone to the National Cheerleading Association (NCA) competitions, this is the first year the team has gone to the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) Nationals competition in Orlando, Florida. This is also the first year they went to nationals with new head coach Amanda Wrinkler.

This will be the fourth year the cheerleading team has gone to nationals since the team ended their fifteen-year hiatus in 2014. The team took a break from competing last year due to a change in coaches. The team is composed of 19 students, all of which competed in Orlando.

The routine was choreographed by Wrinkler and a friend from Oklahoma who teaches varsity cheer. First, they made the skeleton of the routine based on the score sheet and then added on from there after watching the girls’ skillsets throughout the year.

Prior to heading to Orlando, the Cru cheerleading team held a showcase event at the Mayborn Campus Center on Thursday, January 11, to show students, faculty and family members the routine they would perform in Orlando.

Wrinkler said she decided to hold the showcase because she wanted to give them a chance to be in front of their peers and their community before they arrived because they wouldn’t get much support in person while there.

Wrinkler said that a few parents would be going to Florida, but not many had the chance to and this event would provide an opportunity for families who can’t go.

“It has turned out to be a really cool opportunity for everyone to see the routine before we go,” Wrinkler said on the night of the showcase.

Sidney Locke is a freshman vocal performance major who attended the performance.

“I thought the routine was great,” Locke said. “You could tell the practice… really paid off because they did a good job.”

Another student who attended the showcase was graduate exercise phycology major Justis Kelly.

“I thought the routine was good and you could tell how hard they worked and how hard they were practicing,” Kelly said. Though they did not win the championship, they are champions in the hearts of the UMHB campus.