The East cheer team went to state and won second in the coed division, third in the all-girl division, fourth in game day division, and fifth in dance which is the highest we have placed in dance. We were the only team that brought home multiple awards. One of the struggles that came up this year was sickness which caused issues for the team. Ellie Swanson,11, is very dedicated to going to state.  

“It is hard to do our routines when people are gone,” says Swanson “We cannot go full out even if just one person is gone.” 

Swanson’s favorite part of going to state is team bonding. Regardless of all the problems they faced it all goes away when everybody comes together. With a lot of dedication routines go together smoothly.  

“Without dedication,” says Swanson, “stunts fall, people get upset. We do have extra people that can jump in, but they must be dedicated to learn the routine if that’s what it comes down to.”  

Alyssa Medina,12, does not know yet if she wants to cheer after high school too because, her love for cheer has diminished. Medina will miss the family aspect the most because in a team everyone becomes family.  

“Placing at state feels really great,” says Medina, “we had a lot of challenges within the last couple of weeks before we went to state. We did not know if we were going to compete in anything else but one routine the day before state.  

The dedication to prepare is a lot better because they must learn all the components at once, they know that they must run the routine repeatedly. Once that is done then they must make sure the music lines up with the routine and run the routine even more.  

“Knowing that we placed really good,” according to Medina, “even after all the predicament we had was great.”  

Even though getting their routines together before state brought a lot of issues and sickness, the team overcame the challenges they faced and were able to place and take multiple awards home.