Gilmer High School cheerleaders returned with some first-place hardware from their latest competition.
GHS was in Canton at Creekview High School Saturday for its second event of the season. Gilmer was in a section with eight teams and came away with first place.
“We had a good weekend,” said coach Naomi Esparza. “Our score was a 55. It still isn’t where we want it to be, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction so we were pleased with that.”
Injuries and seasonal illness have plagued multiple sports at GHS, and competition cheerleaders have not been spared. Gilmer dealt with preseason issues that limited its preparation and the team was only able to practice with a full squad one day last week.
“We had another week of girls out sick and only had the entire team for practice Monday,” Esparza said. “We literally can’t catch a break. It seems like every week we have a girl out with either a legitimate sickness or injury so we’re still battling that.”
One key component of Gilmer’s second competition routine was added difficulty in its stunts and running tumbling.
“We added some difficulty but weren’t able to fully execute like we wanted to, so we’re hoping we’ll be able to do that (Saturday) at Dawson and see a nice addition to our score sheets,” Esparza said.
Even with a disjointed practice schedule and revamped roster, GHS showed improvement from week one to week two.
“You could tell a huge difference. They looked more confident and looked like they knew the routine better,” Esparza said. “Even though our score sheets didn’t show what I consider full growth as a team, they did a lot better considering all of the new people we’ve got. We’re hoping to carry that over to Saturday.”
Gilmer will face some of its region opponents this week at Dawson, which is the final competition of the regular season.
“It will pretty much be a preview to region. That will be challenging because we’ve yet to see more teams from just our region,” Esparza said.
“We’re going into this week trying to combat some injuries. We have to work in an additional cheerleader to fill in some spots where an injured person was. We’re still not going to have a full week of practice with our full team, but we’re going to try to do the best we can and see a bump in our scores.”