First-year head coach Angela Eades is pleasantly surprised by the results her Midland Trail High cheerleaders posted during November’s region tournament competition.
“With a new year, a brand new team and a new coach, these girls far exceeded my expectations and I’m sure the expectations of many others,” Eades said last week.
On the strength of their Class A Region 3 team championship, the Patriots will join other teams from around the state at the WVSSAC State High School Cheerleading Championships on Saturday, 10 December at the Cam Henderson Center at Marshall University.
“We started the year with only three returning cheerleaders and nine brand new cheerleaders, some who had never cheered before,” said Eades. “Since August 1st, we have worked very hard to get to where we are today. Balance between hard practices and conditioning, joy in all soccer games, work schedules of both the girls and myself, the school and life.”
The majority of the girls are honors students and members of the National Honor Society, she stressed. “Besides, we’ve endured a lot of actual blood, sweat, injuries, sickness and maybe even a few tears to get this far.”
“As far as I look forward to next weekend, it is a great honor to be performing at the Cam Henderson Center at Marshall University and for some this may be a once in a lifetime event, ” said the coach last week. “I want them to have the time of their lives on the floor.
“These three minutes of performance are what we’ve worked so hard for all season. This is their time to shine and show the true sport of cheerleading. I pray they can go out there and represent Midland Trail High School at their best. Abilities. Again, I can’t say enough how proud I am of my team and how honored I am to have this opportunity.”
“It is important that our team has a lot of trust in each other, that they come together and be close to each other,” said junior captain Ashley Eades. The key, she said, is to be more like a team and a family.
The young Eades said she was “kind of” surprised that the Patriots enjoyed the success they have this year. “A lot of things” interfered during the season, she said. “We had to work hard for what we got.”
“I think we have to go down there and do our best and do,” she added. “(In the regions) We definitely did much better than expected.
“There was a lot of pressure (because they had finished the run-up the year before). This year we had to prove a point.”
Her goal is “to have fun with my team this weekend,” she said.
Senior Cassidy White is in her first year as a member of the MTHS cheer squad. She says she figured she’d better do it before it’s too late. “It was my senior year, I wanted to go out and do all the things I wanted to do, and cheer was one of them,” White said. “It was fun, but it was challenging.”
There was hard work involved, but it was worth it, she said. She said it was difficult to juggle high school studies with cheerleading while also taking some college courses, but it helped her learn to take on more responsibility.
Having a winning season made her only cheerleading campaign more fun, White said. “It’s the first team (on which I competed) that actually won the championship. It felt good.”
White thinks the Patriots could be in the mix this weekend. “I think we have a good chance of being in the top three,” she said. The main battle this week, in addition to working on the tightening technique, is fighting the “100 percent” accumulation of nerves.
Greenbrier West will also compete in Class A this weekend.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students. They will go on sale on Saturday at 8 a.m.
There will be three separate sessions. Class AAA will compete at 10 a.m., Class A will compete at 2 p.m., and the Class AA event will be held at 6 p.m.
The arena will be cleaned between sessions.
Email: skeenan@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gb_scribe
