The girls varsity competitive cheer team starts off slow with an 0-3 record

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The mats are always heated with competition as the Lady Ranger varsity competitive cheer team walks into the gym. The team has gone up against both in-conference and non-conference teams now and is currently at 0-3 to begin the season. 

The team started off its season by scoring a 573.54 in the first matchup of the season; the girls ended the day in 8th out of 10 teams. For the first competition of the season, it was the first chance to see the team’s opponents and what it would be up against for the rest of the season.

“Each of the rounds went pretty well; we had a few girls out so some had to take the place of those girls on competition day and learn their formations,” sophomore Rachel Buchholz said. “Rounds one and two were really good and there were minimal mess-ups. Round three was our most hard-working round.”

“Being our first competition of the season, it was nerve-racking and every stunt hit except for one that fell in my group. We’re hopefully working on the rounds more when we get back to make them better,” Rachel said.

After that competition, the team worked until January 8, when it went up against out-of-conference teams for the second time of the season and improved on the first meet. The girls scored a clean 627.38 for that day and placed 7 out of 10. As of now, 627.38 is the score to beat for the girls in their next competition of the season. 

On Thursday night, the ladies went up against the Lowell Red Arrows, FHN Huskies, Northview Wildcats, and Byron Center Bulldogs in their first matchup in the conference so far this season. The team currently has only 9 girls with many out with injuries. The team had to scratch round three at Northern, leaving them in last due to lack of points. The ladies ended up scoring well in their first and second rounds that they competed in, scoring 188.7 points and 172 points respectively and leaving the team with 360.7 as a whole. 

“Our team did great today,” head coach Hannah Parshall said. “We learned a brand new round three yesterday after having 2 snow days before. We added more to the mat, which helped make a huge visual impact on our floor presence. We always try to keep the competition fun and entertaining.” 

Senior Peyton Smith was also very optimistic about how the girls were gonna do against their strong matchups in their conference.

“There have been a lot of bumps in the road, but our team is really pushing and getting over these bumps really well,” Peyton Smith said. “I’m looking forward to seeing our team do just as well as we would with the girls who are out right now and proving ourselves no matter what.”

The team has had a few hiccups with injuries–such as concussions–this season from stunting that have set them back, but that hasn’t stopped the team from competing and giving it their all. One of the team’s strongest suits that they have been working on is their motions that they have been ironing out to perfection. 

“I think hitting motions was our strong suit,” said Rachael. “We did really well on that because we practiced a lot.”

The team takes on other out-of-conference team again on Saturday, January 15, at the Hudsonville Invite. Make sure to go out and support the girls in a fight for their first top-five finish of the season. 

“Our team goal is to improve each competition we attend and today was the first step towards that end-of-season goal,” coach Hannah Parshall said.