The Cullman High School Competition Cheer Squad won the AHSAA 6A title at this month’s State Cheer Competition. / Photo courtesy of Cullman High School
CULLMAN – The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) State Cheer Competition was held at Wallace State on Nov. 18 and saw dozens of teams fill up the gym, but only a handful went home as state champions. (A state champion was named in each of the seven classifications of the AHSAA, and one champion was selected in the Co-Ed competition.) One of those teams was the Cullman Bearcats’ Competition Cheer Squad who finished in first place in class 6A. The Bearcats have taken the crown for class 6A two years in a row now and 12 times in the program’s history.
The 2017 competition team is made up of Savanna Ball, Emily Klair Brown, Megan Flynt, Elizabeth Baughn, Kacie Griffith, Ellie Jones, Sophie Harrison, Kate Davis Heatherly, Tavie Owen, Katelyn Kress, Karli Mcgehee, Sydney Ratliff, Ashton Story and Lauren Sumrall. Erica Ball is the varsity head coach, Stacie Owen coaches the junior varsity team and Lacy and Josh Stancil are the team’s community coaches.
Ball is very proud of the way her team performed, especially considering the age of her competition squad.
“We have a fairly young team here this year. We have 14 girls and 11 of them are freshmen or sophomores. I have a junior and two seniors and outside of them we really have a young group,” Ball said. “The older girls have really done a great job of helping the younger girls understand what’s at stake in the competitions and showing them that all the hard work we put in culminates during the competitions. They’ve also done a great job of communicating and teaching the younger girls how important that constant communication and encouragement is.”
Ball also gave a lot of credit to her team’s support from the community, particularly the involvement of Victory Cheer Academy and its staff.
“I really want to pay tribute to Josh and Lacy Stancil and Victory Cheer Academy. Their gym is our home gym and we practice their every single day. Josh and Lacy work as our community coaches and they have been a tremendous help for us,” said Ball.
Ball’s team has qualified for this year’s national competition and she’s excited to go out and do something that Cullman hasn’t been able to accomplish on the big stage before.
“We have received a bid to participate in this year’s national competition in February and we are going to add some more difficulty to the routine. We had the most difficult routine at the state competition and the girls really put on a great routine and we’re going to try and build on that confidence going into nationals. We’ve won back-to-back state championships now, and Cullman has won state 12 times, but we’ve never finished higher than fifth in the national competition, so we’re excited to get a chance to go and beat that this year.”
Cullman’s cheer squad will be back in action trying to claim another title at the National High School Cheerleading Championship Feb. 10-11 at the Walt Disney Resort in Orlando, Florida.
Also in The Tribune’s coverage area, the Meek High School cheerleading squad took the 1A state title. Look for a feature story soon.
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