In sports, you often hear teams say they want to win against a certain rival team to achieve something big. 

However, this year’s cheer squad will tell you they were only worried about themselves when considering what they sought to accomplish. 

“We were hoping to really just beat ourselves,” head cheer coach Brittany Starr stated. 

“At every single competition, our goal was to beat our score from the previous one. By doing that and not focusing on other teams, we were hoping to achieve the goal of beating whoever we needed (in order) to get us downstate.” 

These goals and that mentality certainly did wonders, as the 2023 Trojans earned 12th place, the highest ever by a CG state cheer team. 

“It was a great group of athletes, real competitors,” Coach Starr said. “They never really let anything get in their way. They had to face a lot of adversity last week, putting an alternate in two days before we competed, and they still performed to the best of their ability and they gave it all they had.”

The thrill of going to state in cheer took on a new light in 2021, with all participants doing their routine behind a camera. 2023 was the first year since then that CG has gone to state under “normal” circumstances. 

“It definitely means a lot more when you get to go down to state, as opposed to doing it on a Zoom screen just because you get the experience of going out of town with your team, staying in the hotel, and doing all the fun things like that,” Coach Starr said. “I definitely think making it this year was a big motivator for the team wanting to hopefully go back down to state next year.”

Coach Starr said seniors Layla Krysh and Ella Eyrich helped to lead and motivate the team to make that ultimate step. They were varsity athletes all four years of high school, and Coach Starr was glad they made it to state in their final time around.

“It means a lot to me,” she said. “They actually pointed out to me on this trip that they’ve made it to state three out of their four years of high school. They were definitely veterans and helped the team get down [to state] and get in the mindset we needed to be in to be there. 

“I’ve also known those girls for a very, very long time. It’s sad to see them go, but I’m happy that they got to experience state three out of four times of their high school career.” 

Coach Starr, in the midst of reminiscing on her special seniors, gave a shoutout to the whole group that produced the best cheer season in Cary-Grove history. 

“All of the girls came together, and I don’t think without any of them, would we have been as successful as we were this year.”