Flipping through competition
The McLean cheer team places fourth at districts
The cheer team represents McLean at their district competition. Photo by Isaac Lamoreaux.
October 31, 2019
Injuries, demanding workouts, and months of sweat and tears were put into preparation for the McLean cheer team’s last competition of the year at the district competition held at South Lakes High School. Schools from across the county traveled to the competition with the common hope of giving it their all.
“Schools from all around this area like Langley, Yorktown, Herndon, South Lakes [were there],” senior Lindsea Strelser said.
Leading up to the competition, the cheer team spent hours practicing after school for most days after school in order to perform their best at competition.
“We spent the week beforehand running full outs of our routine and completely recreating the cheer portion,” Strelser said.
Every week, the cheer team underwent the same rigorous routine to keep up on their core exercises, along with other crucial routines to boost their performance.
“We arrive early to stretch and do warm ups in the hallway while volleyball finishes up their practice. Once 6 p.m. hits, we go inside and roll down the mats. We get straight into warming up stunts and jumps so we can work the routine and get the most of our practice time. After going full out, our coach brings us in for a talk and then we break,” Strelser said.
After their performance, the McLean cheer team was ranked in comparison to other schools.
““We got fourth out of six teams, which may not seem awesome but it’s an improvement from our past years,” Strelser said.
Despite the difficulty of the competition, the anxiety before cheer competitions bring the team closer together as they take down competitions.
“No matter how many times you step on the mat to compete it is always scary. At the same time, it’s that feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen that pushes you and your teammates closer together,” Strelser said.
However, despite the hard work put into McLean’s performance, the team was unable to advance, but is optimistic about the future of McLean cheer.
“Now that we didn’t advance to regionals, there are no more competitions for us to attend,” Strelser said.
Even though the team wasn’t able to proceed to regionals they have noticed a positive trend in the team’s performance this year and is hopeful for the future.
“We’ve let other teams know Mclean cheer should be on their radar because next year the team is going to come back stronger than ever,” Strelser said.
Click here to read about McLean cheer’s success earlier this season!