The varsity cheerleading team will compete at the UIL competition in Fort Worth on Saturday. This will be the first competition of the season.

“This competition is when we compete with all of the schools throughout the state,” senior co-captain Torie Hagin said. “We go against different divisions such as 5A and 6A. We have a game day routine which included a fight song and band dance.”

The team has changed the way they practice and perform in hopes of having a good performance and coming out on top.

“We have a cleaner routine and definitely more spirited and loud,” senior co-captain Anna Gresset said. “We have team standing backs and our stunts are looking clean this year, we just have a lot more energy and are excited to get back in the competition and win state.”

Goal setting is a common thing that teams do in order to have a successful season. Teams often make personal and team goals to help better each other all around.

“We made a lot of goals at the beginning of the season,” senior co-captain Paige Goeters said. “We wanted the team to have standing tucks and to be able to hit zero and do the best we can and hopefully win. Each week we write goals on paper and hang it up so we can look at it and have a visual reminder of the goal we want to achieve.”

Preparing for big competitions may require the team to put in many extra hours and hard work. Each teammate has to have the same amount of commitment and effort in order for the team to succeed.

“We have been preparing for the competition since October,” senior Anna Gresset said. “We had a choreographer come in and we made a routine and we have been practicing with after school practices a few times a week. We had a show off for all of our parents to get used to performing in front of people and we had a pep rally at the school.”

Being a senior includes a lot of extra responsibilities and emotions. Seniors are looked at as role models for the team and examples for the other teammates.

“This being our last year, we just wanted to go out and perform a routine we feel really confident about,” senior head captain Emma Richardson said. “Especially as seniors we can step up a lot more and lead the team and encourage and motivate the girls on the team in order to perform our best.”