Lamar University’s cheer team won second place in D1 spirit rally at NCA College Nationals in Daytona Beach, Florida, April 9-11.
Head cheer coach Megan Thompson said it is the cheer team’s third year participating in the competition and every year they have placed higher.
The team consists of 32 members and the theme for their routines this year was “Boomtown.”
“Each year I try to do somewhat of a theme, something that they as athletes can hold onto and use,” Thompson said. “Knowing who you are when you go on to the stage is hard, and having something that you represent makes it a little bit easier.”
Cheer competitions typically take place in large arenas. However, Daytona Beach, one of the largest stages in cheerleading, takes place outside on the beach on a stage called the Bandshell.
“For the first time ever, our team was able to compete on the Bandshell,” Thompson said. “When I first heard the news, I was so excited, but as a coach, I was immediately concerned — our routine was not necessarily built for the outdoors. If you watch our finals routine, you can tell that the wind takes some of our props.”
Co-captain Hannah McManus said competing outdoors instead on inside a darkened arena added motivation.
“Being able to see all of our parents, our coach, the crowd responding to you, and then even the people in the stands rallying with us, was insane and it helped so much,” she said.
Cheer captain Cameron Brewer said the teams were given a score sheet over what the judges were looking for prior to the competition.
“Knowing what the judges were looking for made practicing easier but also a bit harder as well,” she said.
Thompson said it was one of the hardest judging panels the team has faced.
“We scored lower than we did in our first year, so we were basically crossing our fingers and toes, hoping for the best,” she said. “When they announced the placement, I think we woke up the whole hotel.
“It was just a difficult judging panel, so it was shocking when we found out we had placed second.”
After the competition, the team was given their score sheet and were able to read the judges’ comments, Thompson said.
“Our favorite comment was from judge number two, who said you can really tell that there’s genuine enthusiasm — they could see what we obviously felt,” Thompson said. “In cheerleading, that’s one of the best compliments you can get, because you do that same routine hundreds of times. It gets to a point where it’s almost hard to pretend like you’re excited about it.
“However, knowing that the girls hyped themselves up behind the Bandshell, you could just tell the energy was different going into that performance, and the fact that even the judges could see it was so rewarding.”