Panther cheer and dance is headed to Nationals for the second straight year.
After a historic 2022, in which they became the first Franklin team to compete in the Universal Cheerleaders’ Association National Championships, Lynn Baker’s squad has spent the past several months preparing two new routines. At the UCA Regional in Concord Nov. 4, the Panthers placed second in both Traditional and Game Day competition, punching their return tickets to the UCA Nationals in February.
“They said to us, ‘We just want to walk off the mat and know that we feel good and we don’t regret anything,’ which was amazing to have teenagers say that,” said Baker of the team’s goals entering the Regional. “We entered the Game Day arena last year for the first time ever, and so this year they have a Traditional routine and a Game Day routine. So, again we’re making school history as the first team to ever have bids for both routines to go to Nationals. We also had our first top-three finish ever for Game Day, which was huge, especially for us being young as far as participating in Game Day.”
After just missing the cut in the Game Day division last year, which replicates crowd-leading cheers teams might use on Friday nights, this Panther team will be the first in school history to perform two routines at Nationals. Following a major setback just a week before the Regional, Franklin defied all odds to earn their bids to Orlando.
“They had to redo both of their routines last-minute due to unforeseen circumstances,” said Baker. “We had some people quit last-minute, we had some people that weren’t eligible to compete last-minute, and so a week out they had to redo both routines and rework them entirely. … We started working on field work for it this summer, and then we put together all the choreography at the beginning of September, so we had been working it for three or four months. And so, at the last minute we had to change it and put people into positions that they hadn’t been working in.”
Because each team member plays a critical part in each routine (especially in the Traditional category, which features intricately choreographed dances set to music), having even one person missing throws off the entire performance. Upon learning they’d only have 12 Panthers on hand for Regionals, the team frantically set about reworking their plans.
“The girls look at us coaches [and say] ‘What’s the plan?’ and we get strategic and figure out, ‘OK, how do we utilize the people that we have, the skills that we have that we know are clean and they can hit?’” said Baker. “‘What’s going to score best on the scoresheet and get points for us?’ And so we go after it at practice and we just start reworking it. We start going through it, making sure that it makes sense, it’s clean, they’re confident with it and it’s material that can hit whenever we go to competition.”
In a jam-packed week of practice, which they had to hold before school due to Panther hoops using the gym, the team cobbled together some last-minute choreography. Upon making the trip to Concord however, they seemed not to have skipped a beat.
“Looking at the scores we had, we were really close behind in the Traditional routine. We did have a one-point deduction; if it hadn’t been for that, we were .1 [point] away from first place,” said Baker. “The other team had some really difficult stunts in their routine, [but our] kids do such a good job with all the other elements. We call them ‘give me’ points – transitioning cleanly, having good jumps, dancing, showing great spirit, showing good facials. The judges really liked our choreography this year. We teamed up with the band and took on the same theme with them this year, so we’re doing ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ for our Traditional routine.”
Despite the changes to their original routine, and three freshmen flyers (Valerie Perez, Madeline Bishop and Lacey Prince) competing for the first time at the high school level, Franklin earned high scores across the board. Upon learning they’d placed second in both the Traditional and Game Day divisions, the team was elated at the prospect of their second-straight trip to Nationals.
“They were jumping up and down – I have two seniors that were crying,” said Baker of veterans Lauren Shannon and Mckenzie Holland. “I was teared up too, because those two girls have been in the program all four years, and just knowing the emotion from that side of it. … The other girls, the new ones that haven’t competed, they were excited because it’s their first time, and the ones that have been around a season or two are anchored down. They were really excited as well – they were jumping up and down on the stage.”
After the program’s first-ever trip to Nationals last winter, the bids to Orlando were a watershed moment in the team’s history. With Franklin’s winter sports beginning their seasons and a full slate of upcoming competitions, the Panthers have little time to rest on their laurels.
“We had practice last Monday, and we’ve already started working on the difficulty of our stunts. When we go to [the N.C. High School Athletic Association] Invitational the first Saturday in December, we plan to showcase the new difficulty,” said Baker. “We have multiple athletes who are attending the Thanksgiving Day Parade at Disney to perform as All-Americans, so they’ll be gone for that week. Four of our kids are attending that and we have a team of 12, so with four gone we can’t really practice. So, we’ll take the week off then and then the next week is [competition] week, so we’ll be hitting it back hard again.”
Having been named All-Americans at UCA Camp in Concord this summer, Shannon, Holland, Perez and junior Kaylee Zachary will be even busier than their teammates this month. After the Thanksgiving Day Parade, the All-Americans will rejoin the team for the NCHSAA Invitational Dec. 2, with the State Championship just around the corner Jan. 20. In overcoming long odds to punch their tickets to Nationals for the second straight year, Baker credited her team for their work ethic and mental fortitude.
“We have a really good team culture. They trusted us, they trusted the process and they dug in with grit and determination,” she said. “They made a decision that they wanted to compete and do a good job, and they did the work and put in the effort. … We couldn’t have asked for anything more this past weekend from them than what they gave.”