Although they didn’t meet their goal of finishing in the top three at the competitive cheerleading state finals on March 3, the Lake Orion High School varsity competitive cheerleading squad, and their coach Nancy DeAvila, say their season was not a disappointment.
Lake Orion finished fifth in the finals, held at Lake Orion High School. Rochester won the competition, with Grandville placing second and Holland West Ottawa in third. Hartland was fourth, Allen Park was sixth, Southgate Anderson was seventh, and Jenison was eighth. East Kentwood finished ninth and Mount Pleasant finished last.
DeAvila said she thought her team received lower scores than they should have in the first two rounds.
“In first round, we scored 182. I thought the score was low for the performance they gave. They had a little trouble in formations, but the cheer was error-free,” she said.
In the second round, Lake Orion scored a 196.5, putting them in eighth place in the competition.
“They did a beautiful back walk over,” said DeAvila. “We knew because there were six teams with back tucks in their cheers that we’d be bunched towards the bottom…back tucks score higher.”
During their warm up before the third round began, two members of the Lake Orion team suffered injuries.
“We were scheduled to go third, but we ended up going last, which was a disappointment because it’s a long wait,” DeAvila said. “And we had a lot of anxiety with two injured girls.”
However, Lake Orion performed well in the third round, pulling up from eighth to fifth place.
“They were not disappointed, and I was not disappointed,” said DeAvila. “I thought they did a really great job.
“One of the bad things about having the competition at home is all your fans are working,” she said. “But we had a good season, and we set a goal to make sure the day was fun and full of memories. I think they walked out of the building feeling that.”