By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
There was a very large crowd on hand on Nov. 2 when the Fluvanna County competition cheer squad hosted the Virginia High School League (VHSL) Region 3C Competition Cheer event. The crowd was large because 12 schools were competing.
Competition cheer squads work extremely hard in practice and training. Fluco coach Kirsen Pillow said that her squad started working on Aug. 1. Most of the cheer competitors also work on their skills over the summer as well. Despite long hours of practice and training, the actual competition routines are limited to just under five minutes. Cheer is different from other sports in that all the participants must be on the top of their game. A single competitor who is lost in a routine will be quickly noticed by the judges.
Although the Fluco cheer squad finished a very respectable third in the Jefferson District cheer competition held on Oct. 18, the team did not advance to the second and deciding round at this event. The Flucos performed well, but the competition was stiff. Most of the competing teams were from the Shenandoah Valley (i.e. teams like Turner Ashby and Broadway High.) Monticello High was the only other Jefferson District school in attendance.
This year’s Fluco squad was young with only three seniors. Captains Kaylee Beirne and Abigail Taylor, and Riley Graziano were the seniors. Four of the team members are known as flyers. These are the girls who are thrown from the top of the pyramids and do twists and turns in the air. The flyers were Beirne, junior Ashley Monahan, sophomore Caroline Mozingo and sophomore Tessa Nolte. Other members of the squad include sophomores Kendall Austin and Olivia McPherson, juniors Adisen Brown, Makyia Damron, Mikayla Damron, Ja’Kiyah Johnson and Mikaela King, and freshmen Madalyn Frink and Serra Smith.
Spectators may wonder why it takes the judges around 10 minutes to evaluate a five-minute performance. The answer is that the scoring system is extremely complicated. There are five judges and there are 12 categories on which scores must be recorded and the scores then totaled. The “Routine Sheet” for scoring found on the VHSL website indicates that in the categories of Stunts and Pyramids a maximum rating of 10 points may be awarded for difficulty and 15 points for execution, another 20 points are allowed for cheer and the rest of the points are awarded for tumbling, jumps and dance. A total perfect score is 100. The scores of the highest scoring judge and the lowest scoring judge are dropped out. As in sports like ice skating and snow boarding, scoring is subjective. However, as in all sports that are judged subjectively, the judges are expert at what they are assigned to do.
The VHSL State Cheerleading competition will be held Nov. 9 at the Siegel Center on the campus of VCU in Richmond.
