Waterford wins cheerleading competition

WDHS cheerleaders celebrate their win at the Norfolk Invitational Cheerleading Championship. 

Chris Abbott

Editor

The gap from first to fourth was close, but the Waterford District High School cheerleaders finished on top at the May 6th Norfolk Invitational Cheerleading Competition in Waterford.

The four-school competition included full stunt cheerleading with tosses, pyramids, cradles, rolls and twists on full mat floors, in a gymnasium filled with enthusiastic spectators.

Second last year after winning the inaugural Norfolk championship, Waterford Wolves kicked off the event, performing the first of two cheers.

“I feel really good about both of ours,” said Waterford’s Aurora Duesling, a fourth-year cheerleader. “We were all very confident, very together. The team hype-up was there.”

“Yeah, I think it went a lot better than we thought,” laughed teammate Taylor Brown, also in her fourth year. “We saw all the other teams and everyone did such a good job… we were really scared.”

After a short intermission, the teams returned for the second cheer (repeating the first cheer). Duesling, Brown and Herron said team energy remained ‘high’.

“Everyone was so supportive…” said Brown.

“And I think that really showed on the mat,” Duesling nodded.

“I think the amount of competitions that we’ve been to and all the feedback we got, we all learned something and it all led to this moment,” said fourth-year teammate Grace Herron.

After the Norfolk County Fair competition, Waterford’s cheer team grew.

“We had a lot of people come in for tryouts after the fair,” said Duesling.

“We’ve changed a lot of things too,” said Brown.

“Yeah, so it’s definitely growing,” said Duesling. “

And hopefully next year it will grow more.”

“After a win, we always get a lot of people wanting to come be a part of the team,” said Brown.

Delhi Raiders were second, Simcoe Composite Sabres third, and Valley Heights Bears fourth.