Colquitt County High School Lady Packer Competitive Cheerleading Squad prepares for 2023 season

Published 3:00 pm Thursday, May 25, 2023

MOULTRIE – Competitive cheerleading is one of those sports that can be challenging to follow for those who aren’t actively involved in it.

So, as the Colquitt County High School Lady Packers squad prepares for the 2023 season, what exactly is competitive cheerleading?

“It’s a routine that is two minutes 30 seconds set to music that includes standing tumbling, running tumbling, stunting, baskets, dance and cheer,” said head coach Carissa McKinney. “Sixteen athletes are allowed on the blue mat, and you compete in front of a panel of judges. During the routine you have to complete different difficulties of skills. Then, you are rated on the difficulty as well as execution.”

Tumbling is when an athlete completes a variety of acrobatic skills in a row. Running tumbling is simply when they begin those skills with a run to gain speed.

“The girls have gotten very good at tumbling,” said McKinney. “Some of the girls take tumbling classes outside comp cheer.”

Stunting is when girls are lifted into the air by their teammates within their stunt groups, and pyramids are when those stunt groups come together to form an entire squad stunt.

Baskets indicate when an athlete is actually thrown in the air.

“We normally have four stunt groups since it’s 16 girls,” said McKinney. “But, we can break that down into five stunt groups with three girls each for the second stunt if we want to.”

The judges also rate the squads based on their overall crowd appeal.

“That’s one of our big focuses this year,” said McKinney. “We really have to work on our crowd engagement and having a presence. It’s only two minutes 30 seconds. You can smile and be showy for 2:30.”

With so much happening on the mat, there is a lot for the judges to watch.

“There are a lot of different deductions,” said McKinney. “Performing an illegal stunt is a big one, but also smaller things like if a bow falls out of the hair and it gets stepped on during the performance.”

Each competition is likely to yield a different final score for the exact same routine, so the main goal is to be remembered.

“I tell the girls that in the competitive cheerleading world South Georgia is pretty unknown,” said McKinney. “We don’t have All-Star gyms readily available like other places and programs starting from a super young age. In Atlanta for example, girls will start and stay with their squad sometimes starting at three years. It’s okay to start unknown, but we want to finish unforgettable.”

Colquitt County does have a middle school program to help those girls interested in the sport to gain some experience before advancing to the varsity level.

“Some girls have some tumbling experience, but a lot have none,” said McKinney. “If they were to start at that middle school level though then they could develop some of those skills needed for when they get to the high school level.”

Despite the fact competitive cheerleading isn’t as popular in Southern Georgia as it is up in Atlanta, that doesn’t deter the Lady Packers.

“The girls had a great season last year,” said McKinney. “They finished first or second in most of their competitions, but unfortunately weren’t able to get the necessary score during regionals to go to state. But, they created a presence and people will hopefully be like, “Oh, there is Colquitt County again.’ ”

As with all sports, there is a lot of strategic planning that goes into the competitions.

“The goal is to find the degree of difficulty and execution that that year’s group of girls can do,” said McKinney. “You could do a routine with a lower difficulty and have a great execution score, or compete with a higher degree of difficulty and the execution may not be exactly what you want it to be, but you could do well either way.”

Finding that balance for each squad is a yearly task because each season sees some level of turnaround. Not only do the skills levels need to be assessed, but the team must bond.

“Building that camaraderie is so important,” said McKinney. “If one girl knows another girl was talking about her behind her back then she won’t trust that girl to throw her up in the air and catch her. There has to be a total trust in competitive cheerleading as well as honesty and respect between the girls.”

The Lady Packers have a squad of 21, and, considering how many different personalities are being messed together, really don’t see that many conflicts.

“We have to nip things in the bud sometimes,” said McKinney. “But we are lucky that we have a great group of girls who work through things really well.” When needed though, McKinney implements her Four-Man Talk.

“I make the girls sit down and talk about how they can help the other person,” said McKinney. “Not, ‘if you did this I could have done that,’ but ‘this is what I’m going to do to allow you to do that.’ My goal isn’t just to make them a good cheerleader, but a good person.”

To assist with this, the upperclassmen will “adopt” a younger classman on the squad to help them understand the ropes.

This season, the competitive cheerleader upperclassmen are seniors Ada Sutton, Anabele Gonzales, Chandler Horne, Grace Costin, Ashley Almond, and lone junior Aniyah Reed.

The sophomores and freshman on the 2023 competitive cheer roster are: Hallie Whitley, Savana Mackie, Kynlee Haskin, Keaton Doane, Becca Clayton, Lathan Brown, Anabelle Brooks, Lucy Watson, Abbie Shumans, Elizabeth Redding, Makinley Morris, Jerzie Coots, Ella Claire Beck, Hannah Bryant and Sage Almond.

The squad will be practicing throughout the summer and will begin their competitive season starting towards the end of August.