The RHS cheer squad competed in the state competition at the Ohio State University and placed 7 out of 21 teams.

Senior Tori Vastagh, who has been a cheering for 7 years, talked about what the team did during the summer and during competition season in order to prepare for states. She mentioned how often the team practiced during the week.

“We had countless hours of cheer practice. We have summer choreography which consists of 3 ½ hours for 3 days. We then get into actual comp season and start working on the routine. We would practice Mondays and Wednesdays from and had team tumbling on Thursdays. We then would also practice before basketball games on Tuesdays and Fridays,” Vastagh said.

Vastagh mentioned what the most difficult obstacle the team had to face this season was.

“We had a couple injuries on the squad which was hard for all of us, but we overcame that obstacle and made it to states,” Vastagh said.

Senior Lydia Butler talked about the routine for states and how the team captains replanned it.

“We started preparing for states in the summer when we met with a choreographer for two days. Each member of the team had to pay $100. We learned our entire routine in those two days and decided that we didn’t like it so our captains worked numerous hours reworking the entire routine,” Butler said
While the team faced many injuries this season, Butler talked about another obstacle that affected the team.

“The hardest obstacle from this season was when the school forgot to provide us with a bus for our qualifying competition…. We waited at the school for over an hour and luckily one of the girl’s parents was a bus driver and was able to take us to our competition. We ended up getting to the competition over an hour late, and we had to run through our routine very fast, but it all worked out because we qualified,” Butler said.

Senior Elisabeth Hair talked about how judges score each team and ways that points can be deducted.

“We got scored on jumps, tumbling, facials, dancing, and motions and we can get points off from falling when we flip, sloppy motions, and even not smiling,” Hair said.

Senior captain Angie Mills, who has been a cheerleader for 6 years, talked about what it was like to place 7 out of 21 teams during her senior year.

“It was really cool because the other time we have been to states we placed 15 and 12, so our goal this year was top 10, so when we got that as a senior it was a really cool feeling to know that we reached our goal as a team,” Mills said.

Senior Haley Daubenmire talked about cheerleading and mentioned what her favorite part is.

“My favorite part about cheerleading, is actually getting to perform the routine in front of everyone. We spend hours and hours in the gym practicing and it’s just awesome to hear everyone cheering us on during and after our routine is over,” Daubenmire said.