Earlier this month Stan State’s cheer team placed third in the Intermediate All-Girls Division II competition at National Cheerleaders Association [NCA] Nationals.
Placing third in this competition while being one of the smallest schools invited, repaid the hard work that these athletes have dedicated themselves to. Their success put the university in a position to offer much more for the future of Stan State’s cheer team.
When speaking about the program, Taylor Ybarra (sophomore, Sociology), a Stan State cheerleader, said that their coach, Michael DeGuzman, not only made the team what it is today, but has also taken steps to expand the team for next year.
“Our team is growing. We have so many people interested already,” said Ybarra. “He’s looking to extend the program this year, so we’ll have a dance team, a game team and a competition team. So, we’re looking to get a lot of girls involved. It’s going to be a really good year for us I think, especially for doing that well at Nationals there’s a lot of girls interested.”
While there are 22 cheerleaders on the team already, there is not a set number for the team’s expansion, so Ybarra expects a lot of girls to come to tryouts on May 5.
Finding success that builds the future of the team is exactly why these athletes dedicate themselves to nearly a year-long commitment. Starting in the fall, they began practicing their routine to qualify for Nationals while they made appearances in between various sporting and campus events.
“We have a practice schedule that is a little crazy sometimes,” said Ybarra. “We practice Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 7 am, Wednesday nights pretty late, and then occasionally Sundays. We start practicing for competition in January when we come back from Winter Break. Everyone is required to be back the first week of January, and we have a couple of weeks that is just conditioning and learning our routine, so we plan for this for a while. When we come back from Winter Break its mainly focused on competition.”
She added that there is also events that goes on in between their set schedules, whenever the cheerleaders’ work and school schedules permit their participation.
Their coach, Michael DeGuzman, said members of the cheer team are not scholarship athletes and do have to work jobs in between the various appearances that they are expected to make.
Between school, work, and cheering, these athletes do not get much time off and work hard for moments like their third place win in this year’s Nationals.
“We don’t get much of a break, but it’s worth it. The team works really well together, we all get along great. That’s really what led up to us doing so well in Nationals. Our team has such a strong bond and we love each other like sisters,” said Ybarra. “All of us have pretty busy lives. One of our teammates books a study room every single day for us and we all, when we can, we get together in the library and we’ll study. We all are really supportive over our academics towards each other. When we need help, we can always ask each other.”
Coach DeGuzman expressed pride in his team and the respect that they all hold for each other.
“It’s really great when you have athletes that truly respect each other. They don’t just have respect for me, they have respect for one another,” said DeGuzman. “It means a lot to me. That was the goal I had for the team when I became the coach five years ago. I am happy for the school because this came from a small place.”
Co-Captain Avery Myers (junior, Child Development) expressed that this experience was well worth all the years of hard work and dedication. She said that in this sport you only have one chance to get the routine right. There are no take backs or second chances, just two minutes and thirty seconds to get it right.
Myers has competed on this team for three years and will be graduating this year, so placing in Nationals was the perfect way to say farewell.
Myers said, “It was bittersweet, but I recognized I’ve put as much as I can into this team, so I feel really happy with the way that we ended, the friendships I’ve made and the experience I had on that Nationals floor.”
Even though some cheerleaders like Myers will be moving on, the success of this 2017-2018 team marks a new chapter for the Stan State cheer team.