Yoe cheer finishes 15th at spirit state championships

Last year, the Yoe High cheerleaders competed in the first-ever UIL state cheer competition.  With a year of experience and a full understanding of what judges were looking for, Cameron went into the competition with the goal of making the finals performance while improving on their 35th place finish from a year ago. 

After Thursday’s competition from the Fort Worth Convention Center all of that had been accomplished, as Cameron was one 20 teams to advance to the finals and finished in 15th place overall. 

The competition itself grew in size from year one to year two with amount of 3A squads increasing from 43 to 61. 

The initial year of competition was critical for Cameron in figuring out the basics and what they needed to work on from year to year. 

“It actually helped a lot,” said Yoe High cheerleading sponsor Alma Cardona.  “Last year, we went in thinking with tradition on the sideline and were pretty basic.  That helped us get prepared for this year with more crowd involvement stuff and formations.  We had a tremendous change.”

Though there was a familiarity with the process, a lot of credit to improved results goes into the hours of work put forth by the girls.

“They worked very hard,” said Cardona.  “On the time limit that we had, the girls worked word.  We worked during Christmas break.  I think they gave it all they had that day.  I am very proud of them.”

During the competition, each cheer squad performs their routines in three different categories - crowd-leading cheer, fight song, and band dance performances.

The three individual scores from those performances are added into a combined total in the preliminary round.  In the preliminary round performance, Cameron scored a 62.467 in the fight song, 41.700 in band dance and 83.167 in crowd leading for a total of 187.334 points. 

To compare, last year’s scores were 44.167 in the fight song, 46.333 in the band dance and 68.333 in crowd leading for a total of 158.833. 

Cameron also finished 15th in the finals phase of the competition with a total score of 68.9.  Mount Vernon, which won the championship a year ago, repeated as state champions with 78.65 points. 

Other local 3A schools included were Lago Vista (6, 75.95) and Clifton (9, 71.8).  Chilton finished 15th in 2A, Lampasas was fourth in 4A and Brenham with eighth in 5A.  

Cardona noted how the experience was once again beneficial for her cheerleaders and she hopes to improve on the finish again in 2018.

“We are trying to get at least the top 10 next year.  It would be great if we could get first place, but I do want to push to the top 10.  We were very close being 15th out of 61.  Based on the scores from other teams, it was not was tremendous amount of points that we were down.”