Over the Thanksgiving break, Azle Cheer competed at the North Texas Regional Cheer Competition to qualify for the National Championships in Orlando, Florida. The competition held on Nov. 18 at Lewisville High School allowed Azle Cheer to showcase their gameday and competition routines.

Azle JV Cheer competed in the Junior Varsity Game Day division against other junior varsity teams across North Texas including Lewisville and Fossil Ridge High School. After competing, Azle JV Cheer received second place, falling just 0.7 points behind Fossil Ridge High School. The routine scored high enough to receive a bid to the UCA Nationals in February.

Azle Varsity Cheer competed in the Large Coed Game Day division and placed third. However, the routine score of 76.4 was high enough to receive a bid to nationals.

“Before nationals, we need to improve our focus and make sure everyone is on the same page,” captain Brooke Creacy said. “We also need to pay attention to the small details because that is what will push us over the other teams since we already have the more difficult skills.”

Other than Game Day, Azle Varsity competed in the Large Coed Performance division and placed first with a score of 79.25. Their competitor, Lewisville High School, placed second with a score of 77.7, falling 1.55 points behind Azle. Azle’s score allowed them to receive a bid to nationals.

“I believe we will go on to win state and hope to medal at Nationals,” Hornet Muscle captain Jericho Ware said. “I just can’t wait to see what my team can do this season.”

Despite the high scores and places, Coach Melissa McPherson plans to keep working hard and pushing both teams for the UIL Spirit State Championships in January and UCA Nationals.

“We need to improve on our timing and sharpness of motions,” McPherson said. “We also need to amp up our difficulty level in the Performance routine since we had to modify the Regional routine due to injury and conflict with other sports. For gameday, we performed material that we already had since our football team was in playoffs but we haven’t had all of our team to incorporate our UIL material so we will be focusing our UIL routine.”