Ella May

Prairie Cheer striking a pose while hyping up the crowd during a quarter-break on the sidelines of a home basketball game.

Prairie cheer takes sixth in state at the WIAA state championships this month after not competing for the past 12 years.

Competition cheer is hard work, and especially starting it out for the first time approaching the end of your senior year, something senior cheer captain, Ava Wojack is doing. Wojack has been cheering for three years, when asked what it was like to compete cheer for the first time Ava shared, “It was such a great learning experience and we went through a lot of challenges throughout the season as well as changes. But the team stayed strong every day for each other, we worked hard to get to State.”

The process of qualifying for State in cheer requires that your team scores 65 out of 100 in at least one official competition. Prairie Cheer competed for the first time on December 9th and just missed the mark to qualify to compete at State. However, they came back stronger and better in their next competition on January 6th, receiving no deductions on their routine, also known as “hitting zero” and qualifying for State. 

Working alongside Ava as co-captain is Chailya Robinson. Chailya being just a Junior and also in her third year of cheerleading shares the challenges of balancing school, regular sideline cheer, and now adding on competition season.

“Balancing regular cheer, school and comp is exhausting. Especially when it comes to finals or any week I have a test.” She also shared, “Competing for high school was a lot of work, but it was worth it!”

Prairie Cheer competed once more on January 20th, despite having to overcome the challenges of the unexpected ice storms, even resorting to Zoom practices. They once again “hit zero” in this competition. For the next couple of weeks, the team focused on taking constructive criticism from judges at their previous competitions and worked to perfect their routine. 

When asked what they would change about the competition season, both captains seemed to agree that they wished they spent more time preparing and starting competition practices earlier in the season so that things didn’t feel so rushed. 

All in all, they both expressed that their favorite part of competing was the opportunity it created for them to make more memories with their teammates and to feel their hard work pay off after their final performance at State.

“After we competed at State, just feeling so much relief and happiness and being so proud of the team, it was a very special moment,” Ava says, after being asked her favorite part of the whole season. Prairie Cheer definitely ended this season with many things to be proud of!