Congratulations to the CLC Cheerleaders for taking 2nd in State!

On Friday, February 1st and Saturday, February 2nd, the cheerleading squad competed at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington, IL and earned a second place win.

Corbin Schmit, junior, describes the hours of hard work and dedication everyone put in this season:

“Our open gyms this year begin at the end of March and tryouts are April 12th and our season just ended two weeks ago! So I would say give or take we are working and practicing about 11 months of the year. We start with rigorous summer practices. All summer, we have 6am practices with Coach Lehr for an hour who conditions us HARD! The hour with Lehr is followed by stretching and then another hour of cheer practice. When competition season starts, things get a lot harder for us. We have a two or three-hour practice every day, drilling our routine until it’s something worth showing. As our coach always says, “I won’t put something out there I know you can’t do.” When she says this, we all push harder. During these hours of practice, we condition and bond as a team to try and attain success through the season. Once we actually start competing, we escalate our routine and attempt to add more difficulty, making our practices even harder.”

And the season certainly had its rough patches as well. Junior Morgan Gladson, for example, describes how one of their flyers tore her UCL mid-routine in the sectional final. “We had to rework the routine and my group was in tears; we thought there was no way we would place top 5. But through an amazing coach and dedicated team members, we did the routine tighter than we had before. When we found out we won, that’s when it hit me how amazing it is to be a part of something so much bigger than just cheerleading and going to state. It showed how every one of us could persevere and get through the worst of times.”

All those hours of training and tough times have brought the team together as well, contributing to their success. Samantha Korn, freshman, describes the highlight of her season as “being at State and bonding more as a family then before because we were all so happy and that was where it all counted.”

And when asked about their favorite memory from this season, all the girls said that it was the bond they developed with their teammates and the friendships they formed.

“I think the highlight of my season was becoming a family with my team. At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t too close with many people, but now I have an amazing group of friends who are always supporting me in everything I do and are always cheering me on. These are the girls that I now hang out with even when I’m not at cheer which is rare…I think it’s amazing the bonds that you can form just because of one sport” (Corbin Schmit).

Congratulations to: Abigail Otlewis, Gabby Sysol, Kailyn Nuttall, Sara Nuttall, Jess Sounde, Samantha Korn, Jess Rudolph, Therese Carlson, Morgan Gladson, Julia Nimmer, Abi Mitsven, Delaney Carlson, Corbin Schmit, Halle Rogers, Bri Connell, Allison White, Abby Brodzeller, Amber Hayes, Kelley Frake, Brittany Livergood, and Michelle DeCoste.

We should all be proud of their amazing season!