As the football season ends most would think the cheerleading season does too, when in reality it’s only just beginning. Blake High cheerleaders are now getting ready for the start of competition season where they will compete against other high school cheer teams. In these competitions they will be judged on jumps, motions, dance routines, stunt difficulty and crowd appeal. This year the team hopes to place 1st in the regional competition and to at least make it to the second round of states which will take place in Tampa this year. The last time the Jackets cheer squad won regional’s was in 2014 and they also placed 8th in states. The girls are putting in hard work every day during practice to ensure bringing the trophy back home to Blake.

Other than the competition team Blake also has a basketball cheer team. To get more girls on the team they held another tryout where returning cheerleaders taught them a dance and a cheer they would later perform to the coaches to determine if they made the team or not. After tryouts the team now has 12 committed and excited girls on the squad. On this team the girls cheer at all home games till 8:30.

Both squads come together to perform in parades. Blake’s cheer squad is different from other squads when it comes to parades. “When people normally hear about parades they think ‘ohh you just walk and march and you know listen to music’ but we try to stunt and do something different,” said Head Coach Cowans. “I started that four years ago, where we’re actually stunting while the bands playing, which that’s a little different. So I’m pretty excited to see that cause we’re gonna look big in numbers and be doing something different.”

The team invites everyone out to the competition here at Blake on November 29th at 6:00 pm. Other Yellow Jackets should support the team after all their hard work.