The De Soto High School cheer team attended the Baldwin Cheer and Dance Festival held at Baldwin High School on Feb. 13. The team competed and performed routines  they had been working on since November 2015.

According to head cheer coach Jackie Harwig, the over all goal was for everyone on the team to do their best and to have fun.

“The goal is that all the girls go out there and do their personal best and receive a one rating,” Harwig said.

Senior cheer captain Taylor Cannon’s goals were for the team to get a one rating, which is the best rating you can get.

“I hope we do better than last year, place in everything and get all ones,” Cannon said.

The team did many things to prepare for the competition.  According to junior Becca Clancy, this competition is what the cheer team worked up to all year.

“We’ve had a lot of practices.  We had an all-day practice where a guy from NCA came in and choreographed for us,” Clancy said. “We practice at games too, so we are always practicing.”

Prior to competition, new members of the team were informed as to how the day would go so they could be better prepared for competition day.

“Especially for the new members and the freshman that have never cheered before, it’s really important to give them an idea of the process of what happens at competition. Just about how it’s nerve racking,” Clancy said.

Clancy and Cannon both agreed that it was important that all members on the cheer team encouraged each other and tried their best no matter what rating they received at the end of the day.

“We just encourage each other. It’s fun because we’ve been working for it all year and this is the time to really put everything out there and just show everyone what we’ve been working on and just have fun,”     Clancy said.

The cheer team received a one rating in the stunt, cheer, technique, pyramid and specialty award categories.