Cass High’s competitive cheerleading team made it to the state finals for the first time in fifteen years placing 11th! The Colonels won the state competition in 2002 and haven’t been back since.

A new program was instituted this year in which all schools make are invited to the sectionals round of State. Every school is placed in a class depending on the size of the school. Each class, ranging from A to AAAAAAA, is divided into divisions. At Region, every team in the division competes against each other, which usually involves 4-8 teams. The team that places first automatically advances to the state finals and every other school goes to the sectionals round. At sectionals, the team competes against all the other schools in the other divisions of their class that didn’t win Region, which usually involves about 22 teams. In order to advance to day two, the team must be ranked top nine at sectionals. Day two calls each of the nine teams that advanced, to once again perform, and the seven other teams that skipped day one are also required to compete.

In years previous, however, making it to sectionals wasn’t an automatic deal. Only the top four teams in the division made it past Region to sectionals, so it was very difficult for schools in a very competitive region to make it to state. Each year there were complaints that teams who were outstanding weren’t making it to State because all the teams in the division were great, but teams that didn’t score as high were making it because they competed in an easy division. In an effort to address these concerns, a new rule was put in place in order to make the competition fairer.

For Cass, making it to the final round of State is an outstanding feat. The competitive cheerleading team hasn’t been back to the State finals for over a decade, and only just last year made it back to Sectionals. They’ve once again begun to pave the road to a state championship somewhere down the line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8qXs6bdcs4

Howell is not alone in her pride for the cheerleading team and their accomplishments.“I feel like we’ve set a bar, ya know? We would all be disappointed if we didn’t make it back to day two again next year. It’s definitely motivating, we don’t want to let down our seniors or coaches,” says Hanna Tzimenatos, a freshman on the cheerleading team.

Good luck to the Colonel Cheerleading team with the 2018-19 season and with hopefully attending state again next year!