After a rocky competition season full of injuries and illnesses, the Cary-Grove Cheerleading team reached their goal of competing in the cheerleading state competition.
During the week building up to state, the girls could be seen around school wearing their cheer clothes with pride – eager and excited for state. With the season now coming to an end, making it to state was the best way to wrap it all up.
“Honestly, the routine was a blur,” junior Delaney Perrone said, recalling their performance at state. “Our adrenaline was rushing and once we stepped out from behind the black curtains, we all gave it 110% and I could not be more proud of my team and the alternates that stepped it up for us this year.”
At the Sectional Competition, where the girls qualified for state, there were 75 teams that competed from all over and from that, the top 25 teams made it to state. Although they did not come home with the trophy, the experience itself was enough. The girls worked hard to get to state by placing fourth in their sectional competition and finished by placing 17th at the state competition itself.
“We had a very rough season getting to state and were even surprised we qualified,” Perrone said. “The biggest thing we were nervous about was hitting a routine that we would all be proud of leaving on the state floor, and I definitely think we all agree that we did that and closed the season on a good note.”
Now that state has come and gone, the season comes to an end as the seniors celebrate their last night in uniform at the senior night boys’ basketball game. With seniors Danielle Farmer, Madeleine Hall, Emily Gira, Molly Bo-Hansen, and Megan Maher leaving the team, many shoes will need to be filled in the upcoming year.
“The hardest thing will be the leadership and positive attitudes that the seniors will be taking with them,” Perrone said. “We all grew so close to them but next year we will have about 15 seniors on the team, which will hopefully make up for that even though they will not be forgotten.”
As junior captain, Perrone, along with rest of the team, will have to say goodbye to the seniors and welcome a whole new batch of girls next year. Now that they’ve gotten a taste of what going to state is like, hopefully next year they’ll be able to return and come out even stronger.