By Isabel Hicks
On April 29, the cheer team won second place at the CIF Los Angeles City Section, a competition with 50 teams.
The competition was a culmination of all the hard work that the team has put in all year, and was a great way to end the 2022-2023 cheer season.
“I remember being super happy,” junior Lily Gonzalez said. “Nothing is better than being successful with all your friends and knowing your work paid off.”
This year was the first year in three years that the cheer team has competed in the city section, and a quite successful one to say the least.
“I am hoping that this win just inspires the future athletes to continue the tradition and to place first next year,” cheer coach Lauren Feldman said. “We definitely let the LA City Section know that we are a force to be reckoned with, and I think that we will definitely come back stronger and better next year.”
Last month, the team also won first place at the Valley Regional Championships, a huge win for the team. The competition had 24 teams from schools around the San Fernando Valley, and Granada Hills Charter came out on top.
In order to compete and win in such competitive competitions, the team must practice rigorously. In the weeks leading up to competitions, the team has practice everyday at 5:30 a.m.
“Our coach comes up with our routine and makes the basics of our choreography, though we get to add our input,” senior and captain Sofi Koretz said. “We make our skills harder after each competition based on our feedback and what we can improve on and what can get us more points.”
There are different levels of choreography that go on in order to make sure that the routines run as smoothly as possible for competitions.
“We have to make sure we have all the elements of the routine such as the opening cheer, basket sequence, elite stunts, jumps, tumbling, pyramid and lastly, a dance to end the routine with some sassy attitude,” Coach Feldman said.
The team’s success is largely due to their work ethic.
“Although at times it can be challenging, getting to spend cold mornings with my teammates, rolling out mats, laughing and joking around while we’re half awake builds a stronger bond between us,” senior and captain Kalea Johnson said. “It takes a lot of trust, failure, and focus for us to pick up on new and challenging skills but it only makes us work harder.”
Another highlight for the team this year was making it to state cheering for football. They cheered alongside our football team all the way to the State Championships in San Marin.
“Overall I’m very proud of how far our team has come and I’m glad that we got to showcase our hard work and dedication that we’ve put in since the beginning of the year,” Johnson said.
“They definitely deserved it and we are looking forward to the future,” Feldman added.
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