After the Lakes cheer team’s football season, the girls focused their time and energy towards competition season. The cheer team took part in hosting the third annual All of the Lights Competition this January along with Antioch. This competition consisted of 48 different high schools across the state. Lakes competed against 16 different medium varsity schools and took home the first place trophy.
The All of the Lights Competition looked slightly different than other competitions. During practices leading up to the All of the Lights Competition, the girls lifted each other up by providing motivational pep talks. As the competition was approaching, the girls were set on improving their routine. The team took on their first meet at Crystal Lake Central High School on December 8th and placed third. Senior Captain, Kendall Anderson set her own goals for the team. Anderson said, “I want to improve from the last competition.”
Preparing to host a big competition is not as easy as one might think. The girls came in prior to the competition to help set it up and stayed after to clean. Hosting the competition can put a lot of pressure on a team, but that wasn’t the case for the Lakes cheer team. Junior cheerleader, Gabrielle Neal said, “Hosting the competition makes it more thrilling and helps boost our confidence.”
Hours of practice time and dedication go into perfecting a routine. The Lakes cheer team starts practicing months in advance for competition season. The transition between football season to competition season is hard. The girls go from cheering on the sidelines to competing on the floor with no breaks in between.
During their warm-up, the girls listened to music before they competed and had alumni join them to support them. The girls were ready to compete, and hosting the All of the Lights Competition made them more confident. After competing, the girls knew they had performed one of their best routines.
After competing the girls knew that “[they] connected on a deeper level than usual” said Neal.In their next competitions, the Lakes cheer team continued to improve their routine and went on to get first place out of 17 teams at the Sweetheart competition hosted by Huntley High School. Even though the girls did not make it as far as they wanted, they still had a great season, winning two challenging competitions.
