The Eagan cheer team is headed to nationals from February 8th – 12th in Orlando, Florida. The actual competition will take place on Saturday, February 11th and Sunday, February 12th. The rest of the week will be spent enjoying Disney World. The trip will last for a total of six days.

High school cheerleading nationals takes place in Florida every year, and teams from all over the United States go to compete. Each team competes in a different category depending on their size. In order to qualify for nationals, each cheerleading team competed at the UCA Regional Competition and received a certain score.

EHS cheer coach Kelli Paul explains the daily schedules and practices of the cheerleaders: “A cheer routine is made up of stunts, a dance, jumps, and tumbling. It is about two minutes and 30 seconds of throwing girls in the air. We practice three nights a week and compete locally on the weekends. At each practice, we work on the routine as a whole, but we usually break it up into segments to polish the little details. The girls work very hard to add more difficulty into the routine.”

Coaches help the cheerleaders all the time, holding organized practices and making the girls work on the routines until they’re complete.

EHS cheerleader Alissa Donkers describes her favorite part about cheerleading at nationals: “My favorite part of cheerleading is being out on the mat and performing with everyone as a team. My goals for nationals is to do the best we can and get the highest score possible.”

The cheer team’s hard work is recognized at nationals and weekend competitions. Let’s wish the ladies lots of luck and fun in Orlando!