A week after winning state titles at the OSAA state 4A and 5A championships, Sweet Home’s and Lebanon’s competition cheer teams were in Anaheim, Calif., to compete in the USA Spirit Nationals.
The competition, held Feb. 19-23, drew top teams from throughout the West, including Hawaii and Alaska, Sweet Home Coach Amber Rosa said.
The Huskies competed in a total of seven competitions, involving both stunt and traditional cheer, at the competition, where they found themselves up against teams from much larger schools.
“We were one of the smaller schools,” Rosa said.
Still, Sweet Home finished fourth in the Show Cheer Intermediate competition prelims, than sixth in the finals.
“We hit it perfectly on Friday and our goal was to hit it perfectly on Saturday,” Rosa said. They did, performing the same routine they had at state, and actually increased their score from 94.4 in the prelims to 95.1 in the finals, “but some other teams also upped their scores,” Rosa said. “We fell to sixth, but sixth place feels like first place.”
“Our goal there was just to improve our scores,” she added. “We did much better than we have in the past, but not quite high enough to place.”
In the Varsity Show Cheer Novice competition, Lebanon placed eighth with a score of 91.4, after a three-point deduction.
Sweet Home finished 14th in Game Day Situational Sideline/Cheer, finishing with a 92.2 score after a two-point deduction.
At the Oregon Cheer Coaches Association championships, held that same weekend in Salem,
Sweet Home’s third- through sixth-grade club team finished first, and its sixth- through eighth-grade team finished second.
“We had a great year and we’re looking forward to next year,” Rosa said. “We’re just losing two seniors and we have just two juniors (of 11 total on the roster). We’re getting 12 eighth-graders, so the future is bright.”