After a quick turnaround from regionals the previous week, the Homewood High School competition cheer team competed in the AHSAA state meet at the Birmingham Crossplex on Tuesday, Nov. 19, finishing in an impressive third place.
The team’s finish was the best result the squad has had at state in their mere four years of competition.
Rachel Loughney, HHS English teacher and director of cheerleading, was extremely proud of the team’s results.
“All of our cheerleaders are very talented,” Loughney said. “Our team has so much to offer like our freshmen who are go-getters and our upperclassmen who are incredible leaders and all work very hard. This finish reflected that.”
Their season kicked off at the UCA Space Center Regional in Huntsville in October which featured teams from across the southeast. The squad brought home a first-place finish with 92 points, qualifying them for the national championships in Orlando in February and proving their ability to perform.
At the AHSAA regionals on Nov. 12, the team faced other competitive 6A squads they had not matched up against at previous competitions. After a challenging meet, their performance resulted in a sixth-place finish scoring 84 points.
In the short span of a week, the team implemented corrections from the sectional judges and transformed their routine.
On the day of state, the team met at the school for a warmup and pre-meet meal. Following this, they shared some team rituals, including a hype circle for each stunt group.
Senior and competition cheer captain Camille Reidinger says this is one of her favorite parts of their pre-meet routine.
“Each stunt goes, and everyone else who isn’t in that stunt makes a circle to say the words with them and encourage them,” Reidinger said. “It really cheers everyone up before the meet.”
Upon arriving at the meet, the team warms up again and visualizes their performance before taking the floor.
“After this, we start the true warm-up process of getting time on the mats and then we enter a short waiting period before entering the floor for the final performance,” Loughney said. “All the teams then compete, and the top two teams are announced followed by a score sheet sent out later with the complete results.”
The team’s goal approaching state was to score in the top five. Therefore, their 89.5 points and third-place finish came as an exciting shock, a much higher placement than they anticipated.
“When they announced the top two teams, we were all kind of thinking ‘Oh, well we can think of another seven teams that are just as good as them,’ ” Lougney said. “When we read the list of the results later on, we were scrolling from the bottom up, and got so excited when we read: Third place, Homewood High School.”
Reidinger was equally surprised and overjoyed with the team’s result.
“I really wanted to get top five,” Reidinger said. “We have a really hard division with about 22 teams, so top five would have been amazing. We were so ecstatic when we found out the results. It was such a great feeling.”
This state finish is a huge confidence boost for the team heading into Nationals.
“I have full confidence we can win a national championship,” Loughney said. “We fully believe in ourselves, and I keep trying to sell to the cheerleaders that they are fully capable of winning. I think our performance after exceeding our expectations yesterday [at state] opened their eyes to see they are very talented.”
Reidinger shared similar thoughts about their nationals appearance.
“I think we can win,” she said. “We have a lot of momentum, and I think we can hit the ground running even more because we have a long time until Nationals. We can change what we need to change and work super hard.”
Competition cheer is available for any student who wants to try out, not just sideline cheerleaders. This makes for a diverse team dynamic, which Reidinger appreciates.
“There are people from every grade level, and my stunt group has freshmen, juniors and seniors,” she said. “Getting to be with each grade and getting to know them better is so fun. It offers more ways to get closer with people even outside of sideline cheer.”
Loughney reflected on her favorite parts of the season and is looking forward to the time they have left together.
“I have loved getting to spend time with people whose attitudes are reflective of others’ goals and ambitions to achieve something,” Loughney said. “I am excited to see what they will continue to do the rest of the season.”
