For the fourth time in as many seasons, Gilmer High School cheerleaders are region runners-up.
GHS attended the Region 6-4A Championships last Saturday at Dawson County High School and placed second behind Heritage to qualify for state.
GHS scored 79.5 points without any deductions for its best performance of the season.
“Seeing all of our scores continually come up throughout the season has been good,” coach Naomi Esparza said.
“The biggest thing, and what I think really made the day, was that each one of the girls pulled together as a team. They talked their way through it and worked through some things during warmups. It was really nice as a coach to see them take ownership of the team when we needed a little bit of a push.”
Along with their highest score of the season and state sectionals berth came a boost in morale.
“The girls definitely feel confident right now,” Esparza said. “I think they’re ready to work this week. They’re proud of themselves, but they also know they still have some more work to put in and they’re willing to make that happen.”
GHS will use its final week of practice to sharpen the routine to ensure it is one of 16 teams still competing Saturday.
“As well as we did at region, I think we still left some points on the floor,” Esparza said. “My push this week is to make up those extra points that I think we left.
“(We need to focus on) things like executing stunts and tumbling and making sure we don’t have any hands down in tumbling and really just cleaning up the routine. I want them to have a good chance at sectionals to make it to finals on Friday.”
Class 4A’s eight region champions advance directly to Saturday’s state finals. GHS will be one of 24 Class 4A teams competing in Friday’s sectional portion of the event. For Gilmer to advance to the finals, it will need to be one of the top eight sectional performers.