The Caney Creek co-ed cheerleading team won the Co-ed UIL State Spirit Championship on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024 at the Fort Worth Convention Center.
“It was very unexpected,” junior Lysette Torres said. “I didn’t expect the outcome personally because we’ve had a rough year with a lot of changes, so it was surprising for us.”
The team left for competition on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024, along the way it stopped by the Stockyards and stayed in Fort Worth practicing over and over until Wednesday night, where they had dinner at Café Bella.
“I felt like we bonded while we were eating because since the food wasn’t that good we all talked about it and bonded over how bad the food was,” senior McKenzie Sparta said.
The team performed its game day routine twice, the first time was for the preliminary round. Sparta says many of the team members were unsure whether they were going to make it to the finals round, but once scores were given out by judges, the team found out it passed to finals.
“Our whole demeanor changed once we performed prelims,” junior Rylee Peroni said. “Everything just did a complete 360.”
In between the preliminary round and the final round, teams are given some time to make changes to their routine based on scoring. There was one problem: time. Judges took off a couple of points because the routine’s timing was off, however the team quickly made changes.
“Seeing everybody’s focus and drive to want to correct what we needed to fix really made me feel like we could actually do this and win,” Sparta said.
As they got onto the mat for finals, the cheerleaders made sure to get in the spirit by hyping each other up. Excitement replaced teammates’ doubts as the mat became their spotlight.
“We were all screaming and hyping each other up, telling everybody to get it together because this was our moment,” Sparta said.
After the finals round, the team found out it won with a score of 49.7 out of 50 total points.
“Our goal was always to get a gold medal and now we have one, there’s nothing to lose,” Peroni said. “ We just have to work harder to keep it because the competition isn’t going anywhere.”
Since September, the cheerleaders have been working on their routine. Losing members, making changes, moving people around to different positions and having the younger members adapt to it all created challenges along the way. The team even had to cut its winter break early and come back to school to practice a day after Christmas and the following week including New Year’s day.
“I’m just really proud that all their work and effort paid off and that they were able to overcome a lot of obstacles this year,” Head coach Janel Jackson said. “There’s just been a lot of personal struggles and things that they’ve had to overcome and it’s been great to see them be able to use this as something to keep their focus on and stay positive.”
Because of the challenges along the way, the team felt “disjointed,” according to Torres.
“We weren’t as connected because we didn’t really have a need to be close with each other,” she said. “Since we haven’t done anything yet that would really connect us but now, having something that means so much to us really connected us as a team.”
For many seniors like Sparta and Analissa Chapa who are veteran cheerleaders from seventh grade, this was the last time being able to compete at the year-round UIL competition, which made the moment even more special.
“It’s amazing to win, because I’ve always wanted it and we’ve always tried,” Chapa said. “Now, we won finally and it’s our last year, so hopefully we can leave it for them (underclassmen) to keep going.”
The co-ed team made history, being the first school in the district to win a state title in cheer for UIL. It also made the second highest score in all divisions and the highest co-ed score on record since 2015. Jackson felt that the win was a testament to the community and not just the program itself.
“It’s the Creek; that’s what makes it the best, you know?” Jackson said. “We’re not a school that has endless financial resources and most of these kids don’t go to a cheerleading gym. They do everything here. Now, our campus is the one that made history for the district. It wasn’t The Woodlands, it wasn’t Grand Oaks. It was Caney Creek.”
The team will now be moving on to the NCA Nationals for the first time. The competition will take place Friday, Jan. 19, 2024 and Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas.
