After making a splash at the Lindbergh showcase, the Oakville High School cheer team sets their eyes on competing at the state level.
“Oakville used to be a competitive cheering school before our time and they stopped it for a while,” Julianne Tutwiler (12) said. “This is our first year coming back, and I want to make a good impression on our first year coming back.”
Since this is the team’s first time at the state level, they don’t know what the competition is going to look like.
“You have to guess on how we should be performing and what level of the criteria we should make,” Tutwiler said.
However, this has not been the first attempt made by the team to compete.
“We’ve always wanted to do competition, and we were going to last year,” Olivia Hennessy (12) said, “but then it fell through, so actually having the opportunity to do it is really cool.”
The competition is in Springfield, Mo., at Drury University on the weekend of Feb. 21. While trophies and medals can be earned, the team has their eyes on one prize.
“If we make [the] Top 3,” Tutwiler said, “we have a chance of receiving a state title.”
The team practices every Monday after school and has recently been practicing on Wednesdays as well. They practice their three different routines.
“We learn a cheer, a band chant and a fight song, and then we combine them,” Tutwiler said. “We make it one big routine that we compete with.”
However, there are challenges that arise from practicing right after school.
“[We are] having to make sure that we’re super sharp and loud with high energy,” Hennessy said, “because after a long day of school, it’s kind of difficult to do that.”
However, the teammates help each other out on many occasions, whether it would be encouraging them to be louder or helping one another get better at the various routines.
“We all have our own special parts and our routine,” Tutwiler said. “We are… encouraging each other, lifting each other up whenever there is a struggle.”
