The cheer team placed 13th out of 67 at the UIL Spirit State Championship on Jan. 6, the highest in the school’s history. Captain Conley Franklin, 12, Coach Amber Patrick, Coach Jayme Schroeder, Coach Jessica Henley led the team.

The cheer team had tunnel vision coming into the State Championship, wanting to prove themselves after a disappointing eighth-place finish out of 10 at UCA (Regionals) on Nov. 18. The whole team agreed, the low placement wasn’t caused by talent, but rather the lack of hard work and dedication.

“I knew the girls wanted it really bad,” Assistant Coach Henley said, “They put the work in and there were times during the season where I was like, ‘Man, don’t give up on me now,’ because the talent is 100% there, they just had to get the right mentality. When they did, I knew we had it.”

After UCA, the coaches made sure a lack of effort would not factor in their placement at the state competition, pushing the team harder than before. Although only practicing on A-days and after school on Wednesdays, they maximized every minute they had.

“I say overall I started trying more once I realized that we could do good,” Kennedy Milam, 10, said, “And we realized that we were better than we thought.”

“It was a really amazing experience. We were standing there with a lot of the teams we competed with, and when they called Legacy, everybody was screaming and yelling,” Coach Henley said, “It was an awesome, awesome feeling.”

The cheer squad looks to continue the high talent, high effort and high finishes in the coming years even with multiple seniors leaving the team after this season. The freshmen class, which makes up about half of the team, already knows what it takes for a great placement.

“I think they’re all really talented,” Captain Conley Franklin said, “They have a lot of potential to do good in the future.”

Franklin has her sights set on bigger goals after the end of this season. After visiting a Baylor University cheer clinic last semester, Conley committed to Baylor University as her next step in cheer. She plans on visiting two more cheer clinics, one in February and one in April, after spending her Christmas break learning and practicing their fight song routine.

“I’m very excited,” Franklin said, “The first one I went to I really liked it a lot, so I’m really excited to go again.”

For the returning cheer members, their goals have already been set for next year. The coaches are proud of the results from this year, but looking forward to the 2024-25 competitions to place higher.

“We already have a really solid foundation moving forward with the freshman class this year,” Coach Henley said, “Our goal next year is just to do better than this year, we’re always just trying to get better.”