With the region competition on the horizon, state is right around the corner.
Gilmer High School cheerleaders will take the floor at region next Saturday. They received last Saturday off after some injuries sidelined multiple cheerleaders.
Head coach Naomi Esparza opted to err on the side of caution. She withdrew GHS from the event to give cheerleaders time to recuperate while also avoiding putting inexperienced cheerleaders in the starting lineup this late in the season.
“I thought it would just be better to drop this competition,” Esparza said. “There weren’t any schools there we hadn’t already seen this season, and most of the competition there was for some of the bigger schools. We felt comfortable dropping it and had already met our requirements for the year. We wanted to slow some things down and let our team get healthy and start building back this week to get everybody back on the same page.”
Esparza focused on sharpening cheerleaders’ main stunt and pyramid last week, and those will continue to be areas of emphasis heading into region.
“We want to up the pyramid difficulty and didn’t feel like we were executing our previous one,” Esparza explained. “In part, I think that was because we have so many new girls on the floor who need experience. That pyramid was a little overwhelming so we wanted to give them something they’re familiar with and have more confidence in.”
Pyramid has been one of the routine’s elements that has kept scores from reaching their potential. Esparza noted that cheerleaders had a solid practice last Saturday, and they are already starting to show more confidence while performing and executing it.
“‘Between pyramid and our main stunt, we really needed to pick up some points there, and I hope this will allow us to do that,” Esparza said.
To ensure consistent scoring, all of Class 3A schools will convene at Morgan County High School next Saturday, Nov. 5. Region winners will be announced, and teams who finish in the top 16 of the classification will advance to state.
“I think from a GHSA standpoint, they hope this levels the playing field so there is no discrepancy in scores,” Esparza said in regard to all 3A schools competing at the same location. “Those scoring within each classification are scoring all of the teams.”