Tigers, Wildcats take home trophies at State Cheer Championship
The Taos Lady Tigers and Questa Wildcats varsity cheerleading squads both took home first place trophies in their respective divisions at the State Spirit Cheer Championship Friday afternoon (March 18) at the Pit.
The Tigers won first place in Class 4A based on their performances in the three main sections of a cheer routine: Band Chant, Crowd Leading and Fight Song.
From the moment the announcer calls upon the Lady Tigers, every second is crucial to getting the highest score possible. When that call is made, the The Lady Tigers, huddled in a tunnel waiting to be called, have to quickly transition onto the blue mat and align themselves in the right formations for the first sequences of cheering.
All teams in the competition are allowed just 30 seconds to enter the floor, set up any props and get into position.
Wearing white and orange, the Lady Tigers made it to their spots. Six Lady Tigers kneeled in front of the rest of the team, forming a V as in that of migrating geese. Behind that front line of Lady Tigers, the other cheerleaders clumped close together, awaiting the cue that would let them launch a fellow cheerleader into the air.
That cue was the Taos Tigers band fight song. When it came on, the Lady Tigers gave their cheer to the crowd:
Taos! Go Taos! T! A! O! S! Go Taos! Get Up! Get Up! Let’s go!
As they cheered, the backline of the group twirled flags bearing the letters of Taos in succession to spell out Taos.
In the second half of the performance, the Taos cheerleaders executed a series of acrobatic maneuvers to pump up the crowd.
The routine earned Taos a score of 180.74, good enough to take home first place.
Valley and Valencia trailed Taos in the 4A division, taking second and third, respectively.
Coach Lisa Abeyta-Valerio has been coaching the cheerleading team for more than 21 years —
albeit, not in consecutive years. She spoke about the hard work that goes into being a perennial top cheerleading team in the 4A Class.
“The kids really do sacrifice a lot. Their families do. So many of these kids have been in the
cheerleading program since the All Star program that we have for youth. Then they go to middle school. And then they come into varsity. Some of them come in as eighth-graders, others freshmen. But it’s pretty much a 10-month [program], like I will have tryouts
at the end of next month already, again for the new team. So there’s summer camps and fundraisers and then our games start up and they start with soccer, football, volleyball, then we jump into basketball season. And so they cheer, sideline cheer, for our sports here in Taos and then prepare for competition simultaneously.”
In the 2A Class the Questa Wildcats won first place over Clayton and Pecos.
This is Maria Medina’s second year as the Questa cheerleading coach. In her first year, Questa placed fourth in the state championships. Medina said it wasn’t an easy road for her team. “We’re proud of them. They have come so far. With, you know, we had people leaving the squad. We had injuries. Girls were out for two months. We had a girl get released Monday before the state competition and came back and performed.”
Raton won 3A at the competition over Dexter and West Las Vegas.
The cheer team from Rio Rancho High School took home the Class 5A state championship trophy for the first time since 2019.