This Monday, December 6th 2021, the Montevallo Cheerleaders went to their state competition. This year’s group of cheerleaders has worked long and hard to go to competition, and they are the first Montevallo cheer team to go to an AHSAA (Alabama High School Athletic Association). After a great performance, the Montevallo cheerleaders got an 89.4. They were amazing to watch, and we are so proud of our cheerleaders.

In preparation for their state competition, I interviewed the captains and seniors on the cheer team. The first person I interviewed was Captain Anna Kate Deerman. I asked Anna Kate how she and her team had prepared for state. She said, “I personally went home and practiced our material constantly; I was practicing at school some too… The team worked their butts off at practice, making sure we knew everything and make this our best performance yet!”. The cheerleaders did make state their best performance yet. They were clean, sharp, and had amazing stunts. All their hard work really paid off. 

When I asked co-captain Emily Gallagher if she was ready for state, she said, “I’m pumped! I’m so ready to go. We’ve been practicing and thinking about how we’re going to make everything bigger and better for state.”. She went on to talk about how proud she was of her team and how she hoped they would place well. Co-captain Hannah Locks said, “I feel like it gives us a really big sense of school pride to be the first ones to go, ‘cause we were told we would never be able to compete. Then going out there, it was something that was really big for us”.

I asked Kobe Cottingham what the best thing Montevallo students could do to support cheer was, and he said, “Just some school spirit. Just plain old orange and blue, or just coming to the competition.” I am proud to say that the Montevallo students who were able to go to the competition were loud and supportive of our cheerleaders. Make sure to congratulate any cheerleaders you know for their amazing performance on Monday.