Liberty. Cupie. Extension. Flyer.
These terms may mean nothing to bystanders, but when high school-aged cheerleaders perform these — as well as many more stunts — coaches and parents literally leap for joy.
Pulling off stunts has been the focus for the Oakwood High School and St. Joseph-Ogden High School cheer programs during their 2018-2019 competition seasons.
On Saturday, their ability to finish their difficult routines landed each team a spot in Friday’s IHSA State preliminary competition, in Bloomington.
Oakwood grabbed second place at the Mahomet-Seymour IHSA Sectional. St. Joseph-Ogden took fifth place.
“Our routine is packed with great choreography, jumps, tumbling and stunts this year,” Oakwood head coach Kacie Jones said. “We do not have as much difficulty as we have had in the past, so we have been focused on putting out a clean performance that is fun to watch with smooth transitions and lots of energy.”
St. Joseph-Ogden wanted to play to the strengths of its diverse team as it came into the season.
“This is the most advanced team I have ever coached,” SJ-O head coach Jonathon Lackey said. “Stunting is a huge aspect of our routine. We also wanted to provide a competition feel with each motion that we do. We worked on different motions, ripples and variations to make the routine fun and exciting to watch.”
For both programs, the entire season was about working towards small goals to achieve the larger goal of working together.
“We had specific goals from Day 1 and I am happy to say we have broken the glass ceiling. I never would have imagined that we would make such an advanced routine,” Lackey said. “Each practice we wanted to focus on a different skill, but our main focus was to always work as a team and remember that when we step onto the competition floor, we are one unit.”
Oakwood’s program did not come together without adversity, though.
According to Jones, the team was “plagued with an abnormal amount of injuries,” and that led to drastically altering its routine after winning the Vermillion County Cheer Competition championship one week before Sectionals.
“This team has kept a positive attitude and fought through the adversity,” Jones said. “We had to make major changes to our routine this past Monday, but the girls didn’t let that show at Sectionals and put out the cleanest routine of the season.”
Oakwood left its Sectional performance with zero deductions.
Oakwood Senior Lillyan Woodard said pulling together as a team and a community helped power the team through hard times.
“Throughout the year we do team-building activities, and many times have sleepovers before big competitions, all in efforts to build each other up,” Woodard said.
“We could not do this without our coaches and fans believing in us.”
Each team had a different response when they heard their name as one of the five finalists to advance to the IHSA State Finals competition.
Coming off a performance that did not qualify the SJ-O team for the Illinois Cheer Coaches Association State meet, the Spartans still believed they could advance to the IHSA State competition for the first time in 12 years.
“There were so many emotions, I just remember the cheerleaders were holding each other’s hands, their heads were down wishing that our name would be called,” Lackey said. “Once the announcer said our name our fans went nuts, and the cheerleaders busted out in tears. There will never be a better feeling than the emotions we felt that day.”
Oakwood, which missed qualifying for state for the first time in five years in the winter of 2018, knew it wanted to give the seniors one more opportunity to compete.
“After hearing our name being called for second place in Sectionals, we all looked at each other knowing that it isn’t over and we have work to do,” Woodard said.
Both teams will hit the mats in practice tonight while continuing to balance their studies this week.
Coaches and team members will go over the Sectional judges’ comments, and focus on cleaning up their qualifying routine so that they may hear their name again when the judges select the top 10 teams that will advance to Saturday’s final IHSA round.
“This group is so hardworking, dedicated and really work as one. I have coached many cheerleaders over the years, but this team has something special,” Lackey said. “They may fight, but at the end of the day they are a family and will always want what is best for their team.”
Woodard said, “we plan to give it everything we have this week to make our school and town proud.”
