Raising Expectations

"Honestly, we had no idea what to expect with this competition," said Alicia Dickerson, who coaches the cheerleaders at Trinity High School. "We had never been there before, and we had also never traveled far for a competition."

The competition was the 25th anniversary edition of the Contest of Champions, held at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando. Trinity had entered the small varsity division with a squad of ten girls, including three sophomores from the JV squad. It was the first time this particular group had performed together.

"This group of girls is made of JV and varsity members," Dickerson explained. "We had 25 cheerleaders between the two squads and they had to try out to be on the competition squad. We took the top ten that tried out. They don't have any other achievements together because this was their first time to be together."

The chemistry must have worked, considering the girls walked away with the small varsity championship.

"We knew [our routine] was good and we knew that if we performed it well we would have a good chance of walking away with the title," Dickerson added.

They did just that.

Senior captain Ellie Andrus recalls the feeling of having their name called as the winning team.

"When they announced our name it was a feeling of excitement and pure happiness," Andrus said. "We all jumped, screamed, and hugged each other and were ecstatic our hard work paid off."

Fellow co-captain Amber Woolridge, one of four seniors on the squad, reinforced Andrus' assessment of the team's hard work paying off.

"The practices were long and tough, but in the end it was all worth it," she said. "Our team got along so well I would do it again in a heartbeat. I loved it."

"Our team winning the national title means that all of our hard work and dedication was well worth it and paid off," added Nancy Miller, senior and co-captain. "It was a perfect ending to a wonderful year with the girls!"
The national title has put a new perspective on cheerleading at Trinity. You could say the bar has been raised.

"Bringing home this title was an amazing feeling," Dickerson said. "It meant a lot to these girls because they had put in countless hours of hard work and they got to see the end results they wanted. It is also important to this school and program because we have never brought home a national title before. There is now a new expectation for these girls for the future."