The Cassville cheer team will be packing its bags in January for a trip to Dallas, earning a bid to National Cheerleading Association (NCA) Nationals following a home camp this summer.

Victoria Henbest, Cassville cheer coach, said the team held an NCA camp in Cassville June 29-30, where NCA officials named 12 team members as All-American candidates and three as All-Americans.

The All-American designation for Zoie Coupland, Violet Rillstone and Jonah Meshell puts the trio in the top 10 percent of NCA cheerleaders in the U.S., opening up doors for attending special events, such as the New Year’s Day Parade in London next year.

“After the camp ended, the All-American candidates were announced,” Henbest said. “To be nominated, they had to meet certain criteria, which is the same nationwide. After that, they announced we earned a bid to Nationals, which we knew we could do, but it still surprised us because we hadn’t done it before with this group. Teams earn a bid to Nationals by meeting criteria in things like teamwork, work ethic, attitude and determination.”

It had been more than five years since the team’s last bid to Nationals, having done Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) camps annually instead of NCA, which has a different set of standard to qualify for UCA Nationals.

The team’s 12 All-American nominees included: Coupland, Rillstone, Meshell, Hailey Roberts, Gracee Cornell, Austin Rattigan, Caysee Stillings, Jadyn Stewart, Dusti Artherton, Gracie Maher, Taylor Yarnall and Molly Moore.

The summer camp, Henbest said, is held at Cassville with just the Cassville team instead of in a group or away camp.

“When it’s just us, we get more private coaching,” Henbest said. “There were times we’d get frustrated with a skill, and some of our team members went over to say, ‘You got this.’ We learned a lot of new skills that were really different, and nailing them after only a few tries. NCA staff is also very knowledgable about how to make us successful.

“Home camp also gives less distractions because we aren’t focused on other teams or get big heads — we just focus on what we can do.”

One skill the team learned is the corkscrew, which employs a three-person base and one flier, with the flier spinning down to the floor on an axis while one person holds the flier’s foot and two people prepare to catch at the hips and thigh.

“We’ve wanted to try that one in the past but were too scared because for a moment, only one person has [the flier],” Henbest said. “We mentioned it, and NCA staff said, ‘Oh, corkscrew is an easy one,’ and we got it down almost immediately. Spinning in cheer is very difficult, and if you don’t have a cheer or gymnast background, it’s tough to learn. It’s terrifying because you don’t know how to control your rotation.

“We have some with experience from cheer and some from gymnastics, and others are naturals or we have to teach them. All camp long, the team wanted to try hard skills, push- ing themselves and lifting themselves up in the process.”

Skills will also come into play this fall, as Cassville will compete at a school-sponsored regional competition Oct. 14-15 at the University of Central Missouri, aiming to qualify for the state competition in December.

“There, we will perform our competition routine, which will be about the same as last year’s,” Henbest said. “We are also planning a Gameday routine, which consists of the fight song, band chant and gameday cheer. Gameday state is in February, and we’ve never competed in that before because there’s a lot to it, but this year, we thought, why not?”

NCA Nationals is set for Jan. 19-21 in Dallas, where about 380 teams participated last year, including about 30 in Cassville’s division.

Henbest said the team of 20 is looking to fundraise about $1,000 per member, $20,000 total.

“We will host a Kids’ Camp fundraiser on Sept. 15, where at the end of the camp the kids will perform on the football field,” Henbest said. “We are also planning several other fundraisers.”

Henbest said the experience of a national event is one she hopes the Wildcats can use to better themselves.

“I hope they see what good cheerleading is whether we win or lose,” she said. “It’s an honor just to be there, and I believe we can take what we see and apply it to our team moving forward. I hope the kids say, ‘I like how they did that,’ or, ‘We should do that stunt.’ State last year was an eye-opener for the team because they saw how the normal stunts we do could be made better.

“After regionals and state, they wanted the bid to NCA Nationals so bad, and If we didn’t do those other competitions, I don’t think they would realize how big of a deal this is.”

Work in the offseason has also helped, Henbest said. Tumbling class in Monett are open to team members, and they have been attending in groups.

“They push each other to go to classes and try to go together to learn the skills,” Henbest said.

Fundraising for Nationals will be ongoing this fall, and Henbest said donations to the cause would be greatly appreciated. Anyone wishing to donate may contact Henbest at vhenbest@ cassville.k12.mo.us, or assistant coach Abby Voris at avoris@cassville. k12.mo.us.