April 21, 2009
Spirit Championships- 2009 Recap
Spirit
Jessie Junker
March 25th 2009
High school cheerleaders in New Mexico are not the only ones using pom-poms.
On April 3 and 4 Santa Ana Star Center will hold over 7,000 cheerleaders, cheering on their cheerleaders. The State Spirit Competition starts 9AM on Friday and continues through all day Friday and Saturday. There will be special performances by the New Mexico State Cheerleading program and the University of New Mexico Spirit Program.
For most varsity spirit teams, the state competition is their one chance to show off their hard work and dedication to not only to their school’s athletic teams, but also to their own passion for tumbling, stunting, chaine turns, and chasses. Each cheerleading and dance team practice over 15 a week to present their routine to the judges.
The dance competition includes two routines in two of the four categories. Teams can compete in pom, dance, prop or precision drill. Each routine must be two minutes and 30 seconds. The routines must compliment the music selection. In the pom category, teams must use poms and only poms for 80 percent of their routine. In the dance category, teams can use any style of dance; props and poms are not used. In the prop category, teams use visual effects and props to enhance their dance; 80 percent of the routine must include props. Finally for the precision drill also known as military drill, teams are asked to perform any basic military maneuvers; emphasizing straight movements and synchronization.
The cheerleading competition includes two routines. The first of the two routines is a crowd involvement cheer. It is one minute and 30 seconds. No music will be incorporated. This routine emphasizes the use of signs, flags, poms, megaphones and crowd leading techniques. The crowd involvement cheer cannot be the same cheer as in the cheer with music routine. The second routine is a cheer with music routine. This routine is two minutes and 30 seconds long with the cheer part of the routine being one minute. This may include running tumbling, multiple pyramids and baskets, as well as jumps.
Last years winners will be back to try and claim their titles again. Del Norte (Class Co-Ed), Sandia (Class AAAAA), Artesia (Class AAAA), Hope Christian (Class AAA), Penasco (Class AA) and Floyd (Class A) were all champions last year in the cheer division and Valley (Class AAAAA), Roswell (Class AAAA), Hope Christian (Class AAA) and Valley Christian (Class A-AA) in dance.
For more information please contact Kristin Derr via email at kderr@nmact.org or you can reach her at 505.923.3265. Also you may visit the New Mexico Activities Association website under the activities link.
