Sitting in the center of the Coliseum while our hearts beat out of our chests, time felt like seconds were hours, filled with every emotion we could feel;  this was my experience of the Varsity State Cheer Competition of 2018.

Walking out on the floor, seeing the stands filled with people chanting and cheering while we could barely catch our breaths, we get set and we look at all of the people in the crowd. As I’m looking at all of my teammates with the biggest smiles on our faces, our music starts. Adrenaline is high and the crowd is jumping with excitement. We keep telling ourselves take it step by step, don’t overthink anything. Every little thing we do on that floor counts as something. We get into our cheer and you could hear the whole crowd. “Tiger Nation.” The words that get me going, they get me smiling and we don’t give up. All of a sudden our routine is over, we are all gasping for air with excitement knowing that we just hit a solid routine. Our coach’s face was lit with the brightest smile, knowing in her mind we have won.

As we sit in the stands, the announcer’s voice comes on. We are shaking in nervousness, not knowing if we are going to make it to finals. He starts to announce teams. “Third team making it to finals is… the Erie Tigers,” revealed the announcer. We all were ecstatic and jumping around. My heart was racing and could barely keep its pace.

The next day came quickly and it was once again time for us to perform. This time, walking out on that floor was more scary than anything. Knowing that we have what it takes to be the best 4A cheer team in the state was in mind. Once more, our music started and my body was shaking, butterflies where filling my stomach. We ended our routine and my coach was jumping, the crowd had smiles that I could see from a mile away. We ran off the floor knowing that we did our best.

Award time came up fast and it was time to walk down to the floor. We sat in a circle and were holding hands. First came  2A, then the 3A cheer division, then the 3A coed, then hip hop & jazz. We sat there anxiously waiting for our division to be called. At last, the time had come; my stomach felt like it was going to drop feeling every kind of emotion I could feel. The announcer started with 2nd place, “And your 2018 4A all girl runner up… Thompson Valley!” My heart dropped, knowing that we could be state champions filled my mind. We waited for the announcer to start talking again. It felt as if my heart was going to fall out of my chest as I sat there with my eyes closed tightly. All of a sudden I heard “And your 2018 4A Cheer state champions… The Erie Tigers!” We all jumped up crying tears of joy. We were screaming and jumping up and down as we ran to get the trophy. We walked off the floor with the crowd chanting. We had just won Varsity Cheer state 2018.