The COVID-19 pandemic made for an interesting competition cheer season last school year.
This season got off to a rocky start as well, and head coach Naomi Esparza was without most of her team in August because of positive cases and quarantines.
“There were a couple weeks where we didn’t have a team at all,” Esparza said.
GHS cheerleaders were left with little time to prepare, and had to drop out of their first scheduled competition Sept. 25. They were finally able to practice as a full squad the week after Labor Day.
“From a coaching perspective, I feel about two weeks behind everybody else competition wise because we just haven’t had the kids to practice,” said Esparza. “It wasn’t a safe situation to take them (Sept. 25) and have them go through a routine that way.”
GHS took the floor last Saturday at South Forsyth High School for its first event. Gilmer’s full squad was intact and placed third (with 55 points) out of the four Class 3A teams in attendance.
“I was happy with the day. I think we’re still working through some stuff as a team and with the routine. Overall, I couldn’t have really asked for them to do more than they did. I was pleased,” Esparza said.
Some of the routine’s stunts were scaled back to help ensure cheerleaders hit the skills they had polished. Esparza plans to build on the routine going forward.
“They were consistent with the score we normally receive at the first competition. I felt like that was a positive. There are definitely ways to work and build and that will be our focus going into Creekview this Saturday,” Esparza said.
“Our biggest focus will be adding to the routine now that we know where improvements can be made. We’re going to up the difficulty a little bit to see if we can’t up the score a little bit. We can work on some of our body positioning and upping our tumbling. I think together, those things will be reflected on our score sheets.”
Gilmer will continue its season Saturday at Creekview High School and is scheduled to take the floor at 3 p.m.