The Oak Ridge Cheer competition team traveled to San Marcus to compete in the UCA Texas Southwest Regional Championships and came away with a hard earned 2nd place trophy and a bid to Nationals in Florida.

In order to fully appreciate the magnitude of this accomplishment, you’ll need to know how tough the road has been for the cheer coaches and athletes.

Starting off last year at tryouts for the 2010-11 ORHS competition team, 20 athletes were selected by Coach Sarah Parker and her coaches. 16 on the mat and four alternates. By the end of the year, the team had the majority of the routine nailed and completed.

However, at the start of the season, the team hit several bumps in the road. One Flyer tore her ACL before school was out and it was unsure what the recovery time would be. One Backspot was in a serious car accident and broke her wrist. This was a bone-of-out-of-body break.

The team pressed on and after the first couple of weeks with a solid routine in progress, two Flyers backed out because of other obligations with which the coaching staff were in full support of. Several changes were made and things were falling into place only to have to change everything again when a third member had to drop for scheduling and personal reasons. Once again, the team had to change its dynamics.

With input from the athletes, the coaches decided to drop to a different division. They were now in the Small Varsity division with 12 girls on the mat now instead of 16. This was completely new for Oak Ridge Cheer as they were accustomed to competing with 20-30 athletes on the floor. It was decided by all after much research and deliberation that this was the best decision that could be made.

Well, after facing a tremendous amount of adversity, the team was ready to roll again. Oops, hold on a second… Nope, adversity won again as two athletes were not going to be able to compete at the first competition because of other obligations and commitments.

Not aware of the term “give up”, Coach Parker and her staff pulled up two members who were not in the original line-up. The coaches spent countless hours collaborating with other sources to make sure the team could be successful in upcoming competitions. Many of the girls were frustrated but after much consideration and team discussion, the team decided to press on with their heads held high.

In San Marcus, the team knew how important the competition was. At stake was a bid for Nationals if they wanted to compete at Disney. At the start of the week, eight other teams were scheduled to be in Oak Ridge’s division. This was a big number compared to past years competitions. Once the team arrived, they discovered only six teams to include Oak Ridge were competing,which is still a big group.

Preceding the actual competition, warm-ups were running way behind which takes a lot out of cheer athletes mentally. Coach Parker explains, “The team that placed first (Johnson HS) warmed up before us so it was quite intimidating for the girls. We were able to see other teams warm up as well and we knew we were going to have to put three months of hard work, sweat and tears into nailing a 2 minute and 30 second routine.”

As the girls were heading to the back of the stage to perform, they were visibly nervous and perhaps in a daze as once the competition got moving everything was happening at a rapid rate.

Coach Parker describes the atmosphere, “We weren’t in the back but for only a couple minutes and then we were on. While the girls were walking out my heart started racing. I’ve been to many competitions either as an audience member, choreographer, clean-up crew, or assistant coach, but never as head coach. This was huge for the girls but for me and my coaches it was almost as big. As a head coach, I didn’t want to let them down. My body stayed numb for the entire first section. When people watch the video, you can hear a little girl screaming in the background several times….that was me.”

The routine the athletes performed was divided into three sections- 45 seconds music, 1 min cheer and then 45 more seconds music. Parker describes the action, “Once the first section was over and everything hit, I was jumping for joy. We did have a slight fall in the cheer section but I think it was just nerves. The group recovered, and we quickly got the audience participating in our cheer.  ”Red and Blue” could be heard throughout the whole gym. The second section of music was just as impressive as the rest.” She continued, “The crowd loved our kick double basket… and the pyramid hit with a loud RIDGE at the end.

Watching the remaining teams left in their division looked like it was quite difficult for the team. Once the division was done the team was anxious to see if they would be rewarded with a bid. 6th place was called… 5th place… 4th place… 3rd place…At this point, Coach Parker commented later that she just wanted to scream.

As the announcer called Oak Ridge for 2nd place with a bid to nationals, the whole team exploded and jumped for joy. Oak Ridge was the only team that literally left the mat for a second or two when their name was called. It is beyond my ability to describe the excitement the team displayed. Months of setbacks and ridiculous preparation were being celebrated on the floor.

“The other teams were so talented which made our accomplishment that much sweeter”, Coach Parker said.

In the Fall, in consideration of all the challenges the team has faced, the team adopted a quote, “ORHS is still alive and breathing strong”.

Come February, the Oak Ridge Cheer Competition team will be breathing strong at Disney!

Comments to Doug Sarant at doug@oakridgenow.com

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