After five years of absence, FC cheer made their triumphant return to competition, Jan. 30, 2016. The cheer team competed in the Clovis Pep Classic and took first place in the medium novice division.

The morning before the Clovis Pep Classic was filled with excitement as the girls made last minute preparations for the event. The team met together before the competition at the designated house to get ready for the day.

Although the girls were nervous, the room was filled with eagerness and laughter. The team arrived at 1:30 p.m. to begin working on hair and makeup. Brooklynn Ainley, ‘17, and Sydney Belmont, ‘17, along with the help of some parents, helped the girls complete their looks for the competition.

Although the day was stressful, Belmont enjoyed helping out her fellow teammates with their hair and makeup.

“Getting the hair done was a bit stressful because we struggled with keeping our hair standing straight up,” Belmont said. “Since we only had two girls doing makeup it took a while to do. I still had a lot of fun though.”

By 3 p.m. the team arrived at Clovis High School, where the competition was to be held. As the FC girls stretched and warmed up in the practice gym, they became aware of the many other schools that were also in the gym.

FC cheerleader Maicy Luginbill, ‘18, took advantage of watching the other teams warm up.

“I think it was better to see the other schools warm up because we got to see what the other teams had what we didn’t have and what we needed to fix to win,” Luginbill said. “It was also a little scary because some teams we weren’t going up against were in the area with us. We saw how much better they were and we had to keep reminding ourselves that they were not in our division.”

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Head coach for the Eagles, Hope Villines, expected her cheer team to have a clean routine, but the girls were able to exceed her expectations.

“My expectation was that we would go out and hit a clean routine,” Villines said. “That is really what I could hope for, that they would go out, have fun, and hit a clean routine. They just exceeded my expectations.”

After weeks of preparation and anticipation, the teams began to perform at 5 p.m. The Eagles had been rehearsing their routine since September and were more than ready for the competition.

Villines was excited to see her team face off against other teams at Clovis Pep Classic and was surprised at how well they compared to the other teams.

“One thing I was so excited to see was how well our team matched up, in fact they were better than a lot of the teams there,” Villines said. “They’ve put in so much work, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. Then when we put them up against other teams they just did an amazing job.”

The FC cheer team was able to place first in their division, even after not cheering competitively for five years. On Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, the team will be competing at the Buchanan CIF against nine other schools in division two. The girls are looking to add a higher degree of difficulty to their routine, so be sure to go out and support them this weekend.

For more features, please read Passion drives Trevor Trevino’s beat.

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