The BV West cheerleaders spend countless hours cheering for others. Saturday, Nov. 14 they took the floor at BV Southwest in the hope of garnering their own success. Their efforts were rewarded with a #1 rating.

The 49 member squad has 18 varsity girls, nine are seniors. There are also 15 girls on junior varsity who are mostly sophomores and juniors. 16 freshmen make up the freshman squad. Some schools limit the competition to their varsity squads but cheerleading sponsor, Amy McCauley thought it was important that the entire squad had a chance to compete.

“The girls all meet as one during first block and practice together,” McCauley said. “They bonded together from the first day of camp in the summer and have been a complete unit since then. It just made sense that they could accomplish this goal together.”

The cheerleaders have had some bad luck at this competition in the past and were doing all they could to guarantee success for the seniors.

“Each year it seems like something happened, one year it was our uniforms, another it was our music, I was so nervous,” senior Lauren Garcia said. “This year we were determined to get the #1 rating.”

Seriousness about the competition was replaced by the sheer joy of cheering in front of a crowd once the competition started.

“During our practice tumbling runs and stunts in the practice room everybody looked like they were going to hurt somebody,” senior Emery Braun said. “But once we took the floor it was like something magic happened; everybody was smiling ear to ear. We had so much fun.”

The squad anxiously awaited the announcement of the winners and could barely contain their anticipation.

“When they announced that we were the only team to achieve a #1 rating, we just lost it,” senior Madison Usher said. “We might have been more gracious but we were just so excited. I love these girls so much.”

To see a video of the routine click on this YouTube link: https://youtu.be/6OGaXweXjQo

Photographer Sabrina Cline captured the action and reactions.

Sabrina Cline