Senior cheerleader Bella Davis remembers the nervousness she felt going into the big-time competition.
“You’re standing backstage. You hear the other teams going on, and you’re waiting, and it’s scary,” Davis said.
Last month, the Misericordia Cheerleaders found victory in Florida at the Universal Cheer Association (UCA) and World Cup International Cheer Union (ICU) Competitions. UCA involves cheer teams within the US, and the ICU involves cheer teams internationally. Their time in Florida spanned five days, but their schedule was jam-packed with five competitions on the mats while also cleaning up and perfecting their routines.
The team performed their Game-Day routine at the semi-finals. The next day, the performance group competed, and that night they also performed their Game-Day routine once again at the finals.
The pressure was high going into finals, as the women were in third place and hoping to maintain that place in order to medal.
“Sitting there on the mat and hearing we were not in fourth and that we stayed in third place was a surreal feeling that I couldn’t even explain,” Davis said.
The team also had no deductions on their performance for Game-Day in which they placed third in the Open All Girl Game Day DIII. This was a victory because the previous year, the team placed sixth in this division.
The performance group placed fifth in the Open All-Girl division. This year there were 15 girls in this group.
“Our performance group is the first time we’ve made finals in five years. It was a big accomplishment to finally work out our nerves and the idea that we are strong enough and skilled enough to advance to finals,” said Head Cheerleading Coach Tara Sinclair.
Their second competition was ICU, and it was the team’s first time ever competing. It was the last leg of their time in Florida, and it was meant to be a more relaxing time, a time for the cheerleaders to just have fun. The team placed 1st in the All Girl Game Day, surpassing Tokyo University of Agriculture in Japan, and Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. Team members said there was no pressure or expectations for the team to win anything, so winning the medal was a special moment for them.
The wins didn’t come without hardships, however. The day before their first routine on the mats, one of the members got injured. The team was able to rework their routines to be prepared for the upcoming performances. Members say they also participate in a group huddle before every performance and chant and pray. Practice was crucial, too. The team started working on routines back in October and members returned to campus early from winter break to prepare for UCA. They had two or three practices each day until Jan. 15.
MU Cheer has gone to UCA every year since 2009. This year was monumental as the team made it to finals in every division they entered. Furthermore, they have been the highest finishing DIII college championship for 8 years running.
“I’m so proud of this team’s fight for skills and their dedication to continuing to push boundaries, and acquiring skills, perfecting skills and believing in the we before the me,” said Sinclair.
