Gilmer High cheerleaders made their way to Heritage to kick off their competition season.
There were six teams in Gilmer’s division, and its cheerleaders scored 53.5 on their routine to finish fourth.
Head coach Naomi Esparza noted they did incur some deductions, which was par for the course at the event. Gilmer performed a routine that was altered slightly for the first event.
“We had a couple deductions, but I think that was across the board for everybody. It was a difficult set of judges for sure,” she said. “Since it was our first competition, a lot of what we did was a pretty basic routine. We took some elements out to make sure we hit what we needed to.”
Esparza noted they had some issues with synchronization and their tumbling execution.
“The difficulty was where it needed to be, we just didn’t execute very well,” Esparza said. “The same thing goes for our standing tumbling. We’re hoping to pick up some of the pieces we dropped the ball on and have a full routine with some added difficulty for next week.”
Esparza wants to up the stunting difficulty for Saturday’s competition.
“We want to get those added elements in and make sure we’re successful,” Esparza said. “We want to make sure we’re moving through the routine in a clean way. We’ll focus on adding some difficulty and cleaning up the routine and making sure we’re confident in our running tumbling. It’s an individual skill and just takes a lot of practice to make it perfect.”
Gilmer’s varsity football game at West Hall has been moved from Friday to Thursday. Esparza hopes the night off before Saturday’s competition gives cheerleaders some time to rest and recover.
“We have some injured and down and just need a little bit of a rest,” Esparza said. “Hopefully, that will give them a little bit of a break. We’re hitting the midway point through our practice season and just getting ramped up with our competitions. They get beaten up and banged up, and it’s always nice to get a break from that stress.”
GHS will make its way to Dawson County High School Saturday for its second event.