The high school football season is over, and the Sunlake Seahawks had a good year.
They made the playoffs and defeated most of their competition. Now, the team’s cheerleaders have begun their own competitive season, and they’re on track for similar success.
After placing first at the Universal Cheerleading Association’s Central Regionals on Dec. 7, the squad moved on to the Best of Pasco Sunshine Athletic Conference Cheerleading Competition. There they defeated 11 other squads to take first place in the county, claim the competition’s highest score, and earn another title for the school.
According to Head Coach Pennye Garcia, there were tense moments before the winner was named.
“We dropped two stunts in our routine, so we were really down. We didn’t think that we were going to win,” she said. But because the rest of their two-and-a-half-minute performance was so strong and had earned such a high degree of difficulty, the team was able to overcome a couple of mistakes and still claim the county title.
Garcia is proud of her team’s ability to work hard throughout the competition and earn the top spot despite the challenges.
And praise from Garcia carries significant weight. When the team walked into Land O’ Lakes High School for the competition, they saw plenty of cheerleading titles indicating that school’s own success.
“I coached at Land O’ Lakes for a long time,” Garcia explained. “It was kind of funny being over there and seeing the banner in the gym. I said, ‘Those are my winnings.’ I won Best of Pasco for a lot of years when I was at Land O Lakes.”
Garcia left Land O’ Lakes to start Sunlake’s cheerleading program when the school opened back in 2007. But soon after, she left Sunlake for a short stint at Hudson, where she claimed a Best of Pasco title for that school. Now she’s returned to Sunlake and another first-place finish has followed.
Since the team has shown an ability to overcome adversity, Garcia said they’re proving they deserve a designation not always associated with cheerleaders. “They’re the athletes that they say they are,” Garcia said. “With cheerleading, a lot of people still don’t see it as a sport. So I put it in front of them that if they’re true athletes, then they need to act like athletes and be able to overcome whatever they do and move on and make it better the next time.”
Senior Joy Wennlund, a team captain who has spent her entire high school career on the cheerleading team, understands that many people don’t consider it a sport. But she says that’s because they usually see the team when they’re supporting the football program. While that’s important for school spirit, there’s more to cheerleading than what fans see on the sidelines.
“There’s another side to that; the competitive side,” Wennlund said. “When we’re at practice is the only time we’re showing all of those skills. So no one really gets to see that competitive edge that we have until we go to competition.”
Although football games are played every week, there are only a handful of cheerleading competitions each season.
“There’s a lot less opportunities to show all the hard work and dedication we’ve put in as a team,” she said.
Still, Wennlund finds the experience rewarding and likes seeing the team come together, experience success and execute their routines after working so hard on them.
Those routines are Garcia’s own creations, and the longtime coach understands that a good team can’t focus on previous victories. Just like any group of successful athletes, she wants her cheerleading team to remain on an even keel and prepare for the competitions ahead of them.
“They need to be level-headed, but they also need to be focused on what they need to do to keep their stamina up,” Garcia said. “Because when they come back in January they need to be ready to go, and they know that I’m going to be pushing them.”
