Emmaus High School cheerleaders made their way down to Florida for the National High School Cheerleading Championship for the first time in 20 years, from Feb. 7 to 10.
To get the Emmaus Cheer team to attend Nationals, they needed to fundraise over $40,000 for the team, solely relying on the EHS cheerleading booster team and family. Due to the event not being a PIAA sanctioned event, EHS was not able to provide any financial help for the cheerleaders.
Cayleigh Butz, head coach of the EHS cheerleading team, follows up on the importance of being able to participate in the National championship for the first time, for both herself and the cheerleaders. It was an opportunity for the EHS cheerleaders to be able to attend larger conventions than PIAA competitions, local competitions, EPC leagues, districts, and states.
“It’s the biggest competition for school cheerleading in the world, and pretty much schools from across the entire country compete to try to get a bid, and then they show up in Florida,” Butz said.
Despite these challenges, the girls still attended Nationals. Along with creating multiple fundraising events to support themselves over the past few weeks.
Senior Lorelei Eckert, a cheerleader under the EHS program for around 12 years, expressed the first steps of their way to Nationals: fundraising.
“We’ve done [multiple] fundraisers. We had a bingo that was hosted by one of the cheer parents. We had a thing at Yergey’s [Brewing], we had a basket raffle and [a] GoFundMe,” Eckert said.
The Emmaus cheerleaders have been training hard too, having three practices a week, consisting of two-three hours each according to Eckert. The girls also partake in spirit cheer events, such as basketball games and football games during the fall season.
The team has been through many hurdles during their season — with multiple injuries [which had impacted their formations]. Throughout the performance they had to adjust their team around to fill any injured individuals. However, all cheerleaders were back and healthy and in the end secured their bid to Florida.
“We’re excited just to have the camaraderie of other cheer teams. That’s what’s really great about competitive cheer,” Butz said. “Everybody’s rooting for the same thing. Everybody understands how challenging the sport is. [So] we’re just looking forward to getting that experience and opening up on our horizons.”
At Nationals the Emmaus cheerleaders performed in two preliminary rounds for Small Varsity Division I and Medium Varsity Division I Game Day, showing out in both competitions.
