Panther cheer and dance are Traditional State Champions.
On Feb. 1 the team traveled to Davie County High School for the N.C. Cheerleading Coaches’ Association state competition. Having placed first in their Traditional division and second in their Game Day division, the Panthers traveled over the weekend to Orlando for the National High School Championships.
“I think definitely [with] the reps that we’ve been putting in recently, we’ve been doing a lot of – I wouldn’t say rushed work, but on short notice,” said sophomore Jessie McClure of the lead-up to the state championships. “We had practices taken away because of weather and things, so that definitely pushed us to focus because we knew we had a competition coming up.”
Having placed second in their Game Day division (which replicates crowd-leading cheers teams might use in their own stadiums) and third in their Traditional division (a high-energy showcase of choreographed stunts and dance) at the N.C. High School Athletic Association Invitational Dec. 7, Franklin had their work cut out for them in preparing for state. While frigid temperatures last month limited the team’s time on the mat, they proved they’re still one of the elite teams in the state.
“We made a huge comeback from Invitationals, because actually none of our stunts went at invitationals,” said junior Mariam Sanders. “The traditional was really good ... and we had a really good save.”
As a base in the team’s pyramid-style stunts, Sanders helps support Franklin’s flyers during routines, often holding them aloft by a single foot. At one point during their Traditional routine, Sanders’ flyer looked dangerously close to tipping over, forcing her and her fellow bases to shift their centers of gravity to keep their teammate from falling.
“We started traveling backwards and we were having to push up into it a lot and try to keep it up so it didn’t come down,” she said.
While the team lost execution points for the pyramid being off-kilter, the bases’ quick reaction likely cemented a first-place banner.
“I didn’t believe it at first – it was like, surreal,” said sophomore Lacey Prince of hearing Franklin announced as Traditional State Champions. “I knew it had happened, but it was hard to believe it. ... We were all jumping up and down and we were all proud of each other and congratulating each other. We all realized how important it was, and how we made history.”
Having placed second in Traditional and third in Game Day at last year’s state competition, the Panthers outdid themselves in Mocksville, taking home a Traditional state title banner and a Game Day runner-up plaque. For five of the team’s best members, these weren’t their only routines of the day.
“It’s five of us, and it’s like a partner stunt group, somewhat,” said junior McKinzy Carver of Flight Crew, the program’s new team. “We just do more elite stunts, and we competed against five other teams. It was fun. It wasn’t really a competition for me personally; it was really for the experience, I’d say.”
For the past several weeks, Carver and her Flight Crew teammates have stayed through the end of the team’s normal practices at Discover Church, putting in extra time and effort to hone an even tougher routine. The brainchild of some of the regular team’s best members, the stunt group competed in their first-ever event.
“Five years ago they did it and then it just stopped,” said Carver. “I think it was me, Brianna [Quiroz] and Valerie [Perez], and we kind of wanted to bring it back, and so we mentioned the idea to coach and then coach kind of put together a team to do that. We will more than likely continue it [next year]. ... We placed fourth out of five, which isn’t the greatest, but also, one of our basket [stunts] just didn’t go. But, the rest of it was really good, and it really didn’t hurt us much because we really just wanted to enjoy it, especially considering we only had a month to prepare.”
After just a few weeks of sporadic practice, Flight Crew is already outperforming their more seasoned rivals, and will only get better as time goes on. In addition to the stunt group, Carver and Sanders were recently named to an even more elite team.
“We practiced at home and stuff, and then the day we had team photography we had to take videos and send them in,” said Sanders of being named to WNC’s NCCCA All-Region team. “I didn’t know that they were gonna announce it at the competition, but then they announced it and we got to stand up and be recognized.”
From a field including double the amount of applicants as last year, Sanders and Carver stood out to the All-Region judges, showing off their cheer and dance skills in videotaped submissions. The juniors now plan to travel with head coach Lynn Baker to an in-person tryout in the coming weeks, for a chance to cheer at the All-State games.
Upon returning home from the state competition, the team had just one more practice before departing for Orlando, site of the Universal Cheerleaders’ Association National High School Championships Feb. 7-10. In their third-straight trip to Nationals, the team hopes to improve on last year’s 15th-place, National Semifinal traditional finish.
“We were all so excited, because that was our goal for this whole season – to be State Champions,” said sophomore Leah Lopez. “We really want to at least make it to Finals. ... If we really take the [judges’] feedback and apply it, I really think we can go.”