Cheerleading Competition

The Calhoun cheer squad finishes their routine with a move called the "pyramid."

The competition and football cheer squads were exhausted from their annual invitational fundraising event, but it wasn’t because they were worn out from competing.  The girls worked until midnight the Friday before and all day on Saturday during the first weekend in October setting up and running the invitational that attracted 32 high school varsity and junior varsity cheer teams from around the state.

The girls didn’t mind, however, because “we made between $7,000 and $10,000,” according to their head coach Mandy Ratliff.  Each competing squad paid $150 to participate, and the gate fee for spectators was $7.  The money raised is used for various cheerleading expenses during the year, but most of it paid for their trip to the state finals in Columbus, Ratliff said. The girls traveled to Columbus last weekend where they won the state AAAAA cheer championship.

Well into that Friday night before the invitational, the cheerleaders cleaned bleachers, vacuumed cheer mats and prepped classrooms for the various coaches and squads.  They arrived as early as 7:30 a.m. on Saturday to finish their prep work, which included setting up a hospitality room for coaches, judges, and bus drivers.  Cheer teams began arriving at 8 a.m.  The event itself began at 11:30 a.m. and was held in the gym.   Although they spent hours preparing, it wasn’t all work and no play. The Panther cheerleaders performed one of their routines. 

The competing teams were organized according to their divisions ranging from the smallest squads from A to the largest in AAAAAA. Squads within a each division competed against one another for first place in their classification.

Even though the Panther cheerleaders could not compete at the event, it was still “fun but also competitive because we got to see what we have to try to compete against,” sophomore cheerleader Maddie Gunnin said.