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Panther cheer and dance has two new pieces of hardware.
On Dec. 7, the team traveled to Raleigh for the N.C. High School Athletic Association Invitational, vying for bragging rights with peers from across the state. With second and third-place finishes in their divisions for both routines, the Panthers took home two more trophies for the case.
“They’ve been working hard, and this event is a really good prep to get us ready for the State Championship in February … and then Nationals after that,” said head coach Lynn Baker of the trip to Raleigh. “We’ve been working on increasing the difficulty of our skills, so it was a really good time to put some skills out there. We got some good feedback from the judges that’s going to help us prepare even better. We plan to work on some more difficulty of skills even from here, and it was a great learning experience for the girls.”
Less than two months away from the NCHSAA State Championships and exactly two months from the National High School Championships, the NCHSAA Invitational provided an opportunity to refine the team’s routines. In the Game Day Division, which replicates crowd-leading cheers teams might use in their own stadiums, Franklin turned in a near-flawless performance.
“We all agree that it’s the best we’ve ever done in a Game Day routine,” said senior Brianna Quiroz at the team’s first practice following the invitational. “We were really surprised. We almost had first place – we were just .15 [points] away. At the beginning of practice we kind of reviewed everything that the judges gave us feedback-wide, and so now we’re gonna take that feedback and use that .15 as motivation to prep us for state.”
With 55.05 points, Franklin nearly took home gold in Varsity Game Day Small Non-Tumbling Division 1, falling just short to East Lincoln (55.2). In their Traditional routine, a high-energy showcase of choreographed stunts and dance, the Panthers faced a bigger challenge.
“We had a partner stunt come down, and typically when that happens a lot of teams will kind of just give up from there,” said Baker. “Well, in our Traditional routine our partner stunt is at the beginning of our music section, and so we have another minute and 20 seconds to go until the end of the routine, so they did really well. We missed a skill on our pyramid – we didn’t get to execute it – so we missed a little bit there, but the girls reviewed the score sheets today when we came back to practice.”
After missing a stunt in the first minute of their routine, Franklin was forced into an unenviable place – recovering from an early mistake. Baker said the Panthers practice what to do in such situations, and credited them for putting their plan into action. With a rigorous routine designed to compete at the national level, mistakes are simply a fact of life.
“Our routines are a lot more difficult than last year’s,” said junior McKinzy Carver. “Last year’s, what we were ending with, we started with this year, even with the new girls. The girls came in very quickly and learned, and our dance is a lot more difficult and longer as well since last year and the year before that. … Our jumps have a more difficult sequence than previous years, and [in the] pyramid we have a lot more difficulty. … I’ve been on the team for three years, and this is the most difficult routine I’ve ever had with the team.”
As one of Division 1’s smaller and more rural schools, in recent years the Panthers have consistently punched above their weight. While a third-place finish for their Traditional routine wasn’t quite what the team had hoped for, a prestigious award for one of their senior leaders served as consolation.
“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it … because nobody in our program has ever gotten that scholarship before,” said Quiroz of the NCHSAA/Cheersounds Scholarship. “We had two award sessions, and they didn’t announce it in the first one, so I thought I didn’t get it. But then in the second one … they read an introduction of the recipient before they announce it, and they just started reading some of the accomplishments. Then I heard that the recipient volunteered with REACH of Macon County, and that’s when my jaw dropped. I was like, ‘REACH of Macon County? That sounds familiar.’”
Given annually to “outstanding cheerleaders exemplifying sound character and academic standing, good sportsmanship and school spirit,” this year the scholarship awarded $500 apiece to eight cheerleaders from NCHSAA schools. In addition to her grade point average, Quiroz also provided an essay on her volunteer and charitable work.
“I mainly wrote down the ones I’ve done through cheer,” she said. “We’ve gone to Habitat for Humanity and helped out there, we’ve helped REACH of Macon County, every year we go to the Franklin Fire Department so I included that. I also included stuff I do on my personal time, like National Honor Society. I do Holiday Angels, I participate in the UNIFY basketball game that happens in March, and I just listed a few volunteer things I do.”
Between the Cheersounds Scholarship and an upcoming third-straight trip to Nationals, the past four years have been successful ones for Quiroz and the team. Ahead of championship season this February, having narrowly missed last year’s National Finals in their traditional division, the Panthers hope to polish their routines as much as they can.
“Before practice started, we went over all the things that we should be doing. We usually critique the score sheet and everything that they said we did wrong or bad, so we’re going to just take it into practice,” said Carver. “We’re going to work on more of the little details, so when we get on the mat we don’t make the mistakes we made last time.”