After completing their preliminary performance at the KSHSAA game day spirit showcase (state), the SM East cheer team felt ecstatic. It was an almost perfect routine, everyone screamed their loudest, the movements were sharp and each cheerleader was count for every beat which gave them a strong chance of making it to finals.
Soon after, head coach Laura Buckman sat the girls down to tell them there had been a deduction made — one extra eight-count had made the routine too long but nobody knew that was a rule.
“We were kind of stressed [about the deduction],” Buckman said. “We were just proud of what we've done so far. Even if we didn’t [make] it to finals, it would be ok.”
They sat down for awards to hear the announcer tell the arena of fans and teams from across Kansas that SM East placed fourth and would advance on to the finals round for the first time ever.
“I was so happy [about making finals] because I had the biggest pit in my stomach before,” junior Hallie Pfeiffer said. “When we found out about the deduction we were just like ‘okay we have worked our butts off for three months and we have to be happy with whatever the outcome is.’”
Once, they announce the finalists, usually the athletes get a 15-20 minute break before they head back onto the practice mats. That wasn’t the case for SM East. They were running behind schedule, causing their supposed 20-minute break to be cut down to five minutes before they had to be back onto the practice mats as they were the second team to compete in the final round.
Luckily, getting rid of the eight count was not as hard as they expected. The move that caused the routine to be too long was a shoulder sit. They shifted it one eight count up in the routine to make the routine the correct length.
“After finding out everyone's crying, screaming and jumping, just so happy and excited,” Pfeiffer said. “And all of the sudden we just have to have this quick switch where we have to completely lock back in.”
After they completed finals, senior Ava Perez’s voice was completely gone from cheering so loudly. During the performance, she completely blacked out, and couldn't remember anything except for how she gave that routine her all.
“I fully blacked out for such a long time,” said Perez. “I don't know how I performed and I don't know how I performed. I don't remember seeing anything like I fully do not to this day.”
This year, they changed the cheer program from having a competition team and a varsity team to combining them into one team. The combination of the two gave the coaches more practice time and made their main focus one team instead of two which contributed to them performing so well according to Buckman.
Practicing every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. delivered strong results, as well with having four extra practices the two weeks before state at nights from 6-8 p.m.
Along with combining the teams, the program added another assistant coach, Beth Marsden, who is a mom of cheerleader Mary Marden, as an extra set of eyes.
“That’s been incredible [having another coach],” Buckman said. “I mean, two sets of eyes to see things that we need to fix and change, and two ideas, like two brains to work together and she can work with a group while I work with another, it just allows us to be more hands-on across the board.”
Together, all these changes have gotten the team to where they are today, making them sixth in the state and making finals for the first time.
“We came off so strong,” Perez said. “I was like, oh my god this routine could actually get us to finals, then it did and it was the best feeling ever.”
The team just sent in their video of regionals on Dec. 12. Regionals was where they filmed a video and sent it in to be judged and then they received feedback and critique to get it ready for nationals.
The goal for regionals is to get one of the banners awarded to the top ten teams as well as getting a bid for nationals. Overall, hopefully doing the same or better with the eight-count taken out.
“Im confident we’ll get the score that we need to get a bid,” said Buckman. “I feel like we can do great at it, if we didn’t have that deduction we would have been second going into finals.”
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