Cassville Cheer changes state routine 20 minutes before performing
Just before performing in the Small CO-ED division at state, the Cassville Cheer squad learned part of their routine would be considered illegal — so they fixed it and finished third.
With only 20 minutes before hitting the stage, Cassville Cheer Coach Victoria Henbest said the team practiced an alteration to the routine, and it paid off.
“[Assistant Coach] Abby [Voris] and I decided to change our routine in the warmup room, and our team handled the situation with ease,” Henbest said. “We warmed up our routine in the warmup room and fixed a few things that needed to be fixed, and then we went backstage to get ready to go on. This year, there were eight teams in our division, and with us getting third in our regional competition, we were hoping the modifications we had made to our routine between regionals and state made our difficulty harder and better so we could hopefully place in at least top five. When it came time for awards, everyone was thrilled that we got third.”
Along with the routine change, a key member of Cassville performed eight skills, allowing the team to score more points with higher difficulty, which was necessary due to being in the Small CO-ED division against much larger schools with more resources.
“In order for us to be able to get the max points in tumbling, we had our main tumbler, Jonah Meshell, do eight of the difficult skills so we could get our max points,” Henbest said. “After we got our score sheet and read the judges comments, one of them said, “Great tumbling fella,” because he/ she recognized that we used his tumbling to get all of our points. There are some skills that we have not mastered, therefore we did not perform those. But, we performed equally as difficult skills that we could consistently hit.”
Henbest said overall, she and Voris were exceptionally pleased with the performance, as well as the result.
“One thing I will say, and Abby and I have said all year, is that they do very well under pressure,” she said. “Nothing fell. They couldn’t have done the routine any better in that environment. We were very proud because we beat the team that got first at regionals who beat us. There were four teams in our session (out of 40) who scored over 100, and we were the third-highest score in our session. The highest scoring and second-highest scoring teams were also in Small CO-ED with us.
“Another really awesome thing is that at regionals, we scored low in our dance, so we decided to change it up. When we got our score breakdown, the dance scored as one of the highest for our session.”
Henbest said the difference between third and higher placements was the level of skills performed, but Cassville had a plan.
“In order for us to be able to get first or second, we would have had to perform harder skills,” she said. “One thing that is odd about competitive school cheerleading is that if you try the hard skills and they don’t hit, you can still beat another team who had a very solid clean routine where everything stuck.
“However, Abby and I both want clean safe stunts that are consistent. So, in order for us to place better, we just need to keep building on our skill stunt set.”
The experience on the stage was a fun one, but Henbest said going to state — and placing third — includes other exciting experience.
“The state send off from the school is always fun to be a part of,” Henbest said. “We loved doing it last year, and this year we loved it just as much, if not more. The day of the performance we were all very impressed by the amount of talent from teams all over Missouri.”
There is also another part of the experience yet to come.
“We as a team are very excited to be able to have all of the hours and hard work represented [with a banner] up in the high school gym,” Henbest said. “Abby and I learned a lot from going to state last year, and the judges’ responses really helped us fix and change our routine for the better both years. We are so excited to put Cassville cheerleading back on the map.”
Being “on the map,” Henbest said, comes with expectations to make a return to the state’s largest stage.
“I think going to state gained [the team] a lot of confidence,” Henbest said. “They are going to be nervous, but they know they can do hard things and do it well. [To return and improve next year], the team is going to have to have the drive and work ethic to want to get back on the stage — that the first thing.
“We are also going to have to aim higher for our skills. Like I said earlier, your routine can be perfect and clean, but if it’s not hard enough, you’re not going to be up on the podium at all, or you may not even make it to state depending on the amount of teams that decide to compete next year.”
