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. 7-10 — but not as the Hornets.
Senior Lorelei Eckert, a cheerleader under the EHS program for around 12 years, expressed concern during her journey to Nationals.
“We had to go [under] a separate name, and we found that out after we already registered. So it was a surprise [for us],” Eckert said, adding onto the reason why EHS cheerleaders were under their new name: Yellowjackets.
To get the Yellowjackets 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, both for 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.
The cheerleaders held multiple fundraising events to support themselves over the past few weeks. Despite these challenges, and their demanding practice scheduling, the team made it to Nationals.
“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 Yellowjackets trained hard to get to Nationals. Having three practices a week, consisting of 2-3 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 faced many hurdles during their season — with multiple injuries [which impacted their formations] throughout the season. They had to adjust their team around injured individuals. However, all cheerleaders were back and healthy in the end when they bid farwell 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 Yellowjacktes competed in two preliminary rounds for Small Varsity Division I and Medium Varsity Division I GameDay.
