The Wildcats’ cheer team hosted their first and only home competition of the 2016 season on October 5. Including the ‘Cats, seven high schools participated in the event. Waynesboro, Jefferson Forrest, James River, Pulaski County, Northside, and Staunton River all came to compete.

Each team performed both a cheer for their school and a dance routine. The performance could be no longer than three minutes, but no less than one and half minutes.

After each team performed, the judges spent several minutes comparing notes and deciding on a final score for the team.

At the end of the competition the top three teams were announced. Jefferson Forrest won the competition, followed by Northside in second and Pulaski in third. The ‘Cats came in fourth place, only four points behind Pulaski.

Waynesboro took home the Heart of the Champion award. They got this award for having the most energy and best crowd response.

‘Cats’ head cheer coach Crissie Abell was pleased with her team’s performance at the home competition.

“We improved our advanced scores for our pyramid and we increased our scores for our crowd and our jumps, so I’m happy,” said Abell.

Competition co-captain, junior Dana Adams, agreed with Abell. She was pleased with how her team performed and executed all of the stunts.

“Everything hit and we were really loud,” said Adams. “I’m so proud of our team tonight, because we had just changed the p.m. [pyramid] in like two days and we had it perfectly tonight and it was the first time we had gone full out and hit it perfectly.”

The ‘Cats had a great time at the Cheer Fest. Senior Annie Schmidt was very pleased with her final home competition.

“I think all of us had a lot of fun, I think we really smiled. It was really fun to be at home,” said Schmidt.

The next event for the ‘Cats’ cheer team is their conference competition on Thursday October 20 at Lord Botetourt High School.

Abell said she believes they still have room to grow.

“We’re going to continue to increase our difficulty on our stunts and our jumps to hopefully raise our scores by conference,” said Abell.