The Cypress Creek cheer team won the America’s Cheerleading Cup Championships at Universal Studios Orlando on Feb. 11.
The all-girls team faced off against 20 schools, winning the title after three days of competition.
The team is both a sideline and a competitive program, meaning they started in the summer and just completed their long season. It was Jennifer Catalanotto’s first year as head coach.
“It takes a lot of dedication with these kids. They have to be really committed, and this year they really bought into the vision — that we’re in this first season together — and they really dug deep and worked hard all year and it paid off,” Catalanotto said in an interview with The Laker/Lutz News.
“Being a new school, it’s been really awesome to watch it evolve,” she said.
The championship is sponsored by Nfinity, an athletics apparel brand, and invites schools from across the country.
Following the first two days of competition, judges combined the scores of the 20 competitors, and the eight leading teams advanced to the final round. The slates were then wiped clean and the remaining teams battled it out one more time to determine the winner.
The Cypress Creek champions showed off elite skills — full ups, switch ups, hand-in-hands, tumbling passes — executed with high-level precision and difficulty.
As winners, the Cypress Creek girls received rings and medals, and the team’s name will be engraved on the competition’s traveling trophy — a massive sterling silver cup that will be arriving for a week starting April 1. A celebration banquet is planned for when the trophy comes to town.
The championship win tops off a record season, with the team placing in the FHSAA (Florida High School Athletic Association) regional and state finals, and winning Best of Pasco in January, making it their most successful run since the inception of the program.
“They’ve had an incredible season,” said Catalanotto.
Published March 06, 2024
