Heritage cheerleaders eyeing region repeat
After a Region 6-AAAA championship and a fifth-place finish at the Class AAAA state meet in 2016, the Heritage competition cheerleading squad is back looking for more in 2017.
Head coach Cassey Campbell and her staff said their team is motivated to improve their skills and finetune their routine as they work toward the region meet later this fall.
“We’re looking good, although we do still have some improvements to make,” Campbell said. “We’ve been to a couple of competitions so far, so we know where we need to go and we know that we have a ways to get there.
“But the girls are working hard. We’ve even had two-a-days practice some days, so they are putting in a lot of work and I think we’ll eventually get to where we want to go.”
Campbell said she is counting on and leaning heavily on a quintet of experienced seniors, which is made up of Rachel Body, Terran Hill, Haley Morton, Kaitlyn Moyer and Hallie Wilson.
“We have a lot of seniors this year, so our experience is definitely going to help us,” she continued. “We ask a lot of our seniors and we expect a lot of them. We don’t have (team) captains. We just use our seniors as our leaders and we expect them to be on the same page, to encourage the rest of the team, to get practice started and things like that.”
The Navy-and-Red also have a large group of juniors in Kayla Amburn, Mckenzie Gossett, Kaylie Guinn, Sarah LeVan and Traevin Penland.
Behind them is a sophomore contingent including Meagan Apple, Erin Justice and Gracy Smith, while a talented freshman class is made up of Savannah Carter, Tayler Coleman, Maggie Wilcox and Kheley Wilson.
Campbell said her team is already dealing with the dreaded injury bug.
“We’ve already had to overcome a lot of adversity this year, but I think that will end up being a benefit for us this season,” she explained. “We’ve had had three or four girls, who are really important to the team, that are already out with injuries, so our girls really have had to come together. We’ve had to bring some alternates in and they have really stepped up, so it’s been interesting to watch them navigate that.”
Heritage left Columbus last November with a fifthplace showing at the state finals. And while being one of the top teams in Class AAAA is a point of pride, Campbell said her
squad has its sights set even higher this time around.
“The goal is to beat (fifth place) this year,” she added. “The ultimate goal is to win it all and we’re really going for that, but as long as we place higher than fifth, I think we’ll consider it a successful season. The road to get there is simply hard work and (having) positive attitudes.”