Due to an injury on the super squad, the cheer team was devastated to learn they might be unable to compete at the FCC West Coast Championships at Azusa Pacific University , Feb. 28. Senior Natalie McCallum suffered an injury to her fingers, jeopardizing the squad’s ability to compete.

“One day at school I went to my car and I slammed my finger in the car door and did not realize it,” McCallum said.” It happened so fast, I began to walk away and it was stuck in the door. Before I recognized it, I walked away and it bent back, snapped and broke.”

Cheer coach Katie Mendenhall was disapointed at the thought of not being able to compete.

“I was kind of sad,” Mendenhall said, “because FCC is a great place to compete and we need the practice for the USA Nationals in Anaheim during the last week of March.”

Mendenhall began to think that it would be a shame to not compete after paying for the competition and how it would be good practice. After a couple of days of mulling it over, she decided cheer would go and compete.

“I saw we could still be competitive,” Mendenhall said, “even if we had to lower our difficulty given the teams in our division.”

Although McCallum is unable to compete at the competition, she will travel with the team to Southern California and root for her teammates on the side of the mats.

The squad will be competing against two other teams at in the Large Varsity division. They include Vacaville Christian and Northwest Christian. They are set to perform at 2:11 p.m.

The junior high team will also be competing at the competition in the Large Junior High division and will perform at 12:56 p.m. Awards are scheduled for 3 p.m.

The squad last competed at the Clovis Pep Classic and won the Jan. 31 event against many of the best high school cheer teams in the San Joaquin Valley. After the FCC FCC West Coast Championships, cheer will compete for a final time at the USA Nationals in Anaheim, CA, at the Anaheim Convention Center, March 26-29.

For the complete competition schedule, visit the cheer Web site. For more information on the super squad’s past competitions, visit the Dec. 18, 2008, article, GSSA names cheer grand champions or e-mail Katie Mendenhall.