Wilton Youth Competition Cheerleaders started off as a brand new team this season. With just six returning girls, this young team of 14 athletes had a lot to learn before taking the mat at their first cheerleading competition. Despite their relative inexperience, they ended the season as winners, taking 1st place this past weekend at the New England Cheerleaders Association, their final meet of the winter season.
The fact that they came in first place in the Middle School Intermediate level, beating six other teams–despite more than half the team being made up of 6th graders in their first year participating in competitive cheer–can be attributed both to dedicated coaching and a team of very hard-working girls.
Starting off the season, the team’s coaches–Jeri Tait, Marika LeFevre and Teagan Tait–say they had a good feeling about this team.
“The girls are young, but have so much potential. They learned rather quickly and picked up the new skills. All of the coaches were impressed and excited for the season to come,” said Jeri Tait, who is head coach for the Wilton Youth Competition team.
The team officially started off their season at the Wildcat Open, placing 3rd. Coming out of that, the team was excited and ready to take on the next competition. The next week, they took on the Connecticut Cheerleading Competition and placed 3rd once again. Their next competition was cancelled and the team quickly rebounded by registering into the Quinnipiac Cheer Challenge. The team knew that this competition was going to be their toughest one yet, but putting that aside they went out onto the mat and put on the best performance they could. After the team placed 6th, the coaches discussed what needed to be changed in order for their team to be outstanding at their last competition.
The 8th grade girls knew that this would be their last time cheering all together.
“Walking into the competition, you could hear the older girls talking and huddling together,” Tait explained.
Coach Teagan described the moments before they took the mat:
“The girls’ emotions at the moment were up and down, but the younger 6th and 7th grade girls decided that this competition wasn’t for them, it was for their 8th grade teammates. The younger girls huddled together and told each other that this was the moment that they were going to put in their all, for their 8th graders.”
Wilton took the mat with excitement and enthusiasm, and they hit everything they were supposed to; according to their coaches, the overall routine was a 9 out of 10, in their opinion. As the competition directors started calling out 7th place, then 6th place, Kayla LeFavre, an 8th grade cheerleader called the moment “overwhelming.”
To the girls’ happy surprise, they ended up taking first place, which the judges attributed to the team’s hard work.