The drive to accomplish goals that have been set by the Varsity Competitive Cheer Team helped them to prepare for their first competition at Comstock Park for the CCCAM (Competitive Cheer Coaches Association of Michigan) Scholarship Invitational on Saturday. They started their season November 9 and have been working to have 3 rounds ready for competition by December 12.

Red Hawk Varsity Competitive Cheer Team.

“This is a great opportunity to get the girls in front of the judges early in the season to see how we are doing,” said coach Pamela Ingles. “It is also a scholarship competition that the seniors on our team can apply for a scholarship to put towards college.”

There were 5 CCCAM Scholarship Invitationals across the state on Saturday. All of the team entry fees, spectator entry fees, t-shirt sales, and concession stand profits were donated to the CCCAM Scholarship fund. The seniors that apply will find out in the spring if they will receive a scholarship from CCCAM.

This past week was supposed to be a week of cleaning up the rounds and fine-tuning some of the details for their first competition. However, Mother Nature had another surprise in store for West Michigan. When a blizzard warning was in effect for the entire west side of Michigan, that definitely put some pressure on the teams across the state that were preparing for this competition, including the teams from Cedar Springs. School was canceled on Wednesday and the JV and Varsity teams were not allowed to practice due to the Blizzard Warning. Thursday they had school, but they were released early due to the weather and all after school activities were canceled, which also included practices. With only one day left before the competition, both coaches were hoping that they would have practice on Friday to try and finish up what they could so they could compete on Saturday. School was canceled again on Friday, but the Basketball game was still going to be played that night and both teams were able to practice! With extended practice times, both teams were able to finish up what they needed to do so they would be ready to compete on Saturday.

Red Hawk JV Team.

Compete they did!  JV ended the competition with a first place finish. The Varsity team also ended with a first place finish among the Division 2 teams, which included state finalists from last year Kenowa Hills and Grand Rapids Christian. Their round scores were: Rd 1 – 215.5, Rd 2 – 219.8336, Rd 3 – 295.4 for a total of 730.7336.

“This was a great start to the season for us. This will definitely help the girls regain their confidence that they can reach the goals that they have set for themselves this season,” said Coach Ingles. Their next competition will be January 7 at Northview HS.