Blanchard Cheer
By Elizabeth Contreras
For Blanchard cheer, this season has brought its share of challenges, yet the team has continued to rise through adversity. From the earliest practices, it was clear that this squad not only pushed themselves but championed one another, celebrating every new skill, lifting each other through difficult days, and building a culture of genuine support.
Their dedication has made them a top-four team in the state, an accomplishment made more impressive considering they sit just behind several private schools with long-established programs.
According to Coach Caitlin Smith, it was the team’s strong chemistry and commitment to excellence that carried them through their toughest challenge of the season. In the final seconds of their last practice before State competition, one of the team’s elite tumblers and flyers suffered a broken fibula. The sudden injury was a devastating blow that meant losing not only a critical skill performer but also a core piece of a routine the girls had spent months perfecting.
“The team showed back up two hours after practice for an emergency practice to change the majority of our routine and did so without any complaint or hesitation,” Smith shared.
The athletes worked together to re-choreograph major portions of their routine. Formations changed, tumbling passes were redistributed, and athletes stepped into roles they hadn’t rehearsed. Despite the sudden setback, the girls stepped onto the mat at State and hit a zero-deduction routine after running it full out only once beforehand.
“This made us as coaches incredibly proud of our girls,” Smith said.
The season wasn’t defined by State alone. The team made significant progress in skills, mastering impressive elements such as hand-in-hands and full-up 360 switch-ups. As they now shift their focus to NCA and STUNT, cleanliness and technique have become top priorities. Smith says that emphasizing fundamentals earlier will help the team feel smoother in their routines and make new skill acquisition more natural.
Through each unique challenge, especially the one no one saw coming, the team has only grown more resilient. Their chemistry has tightened, their confidence has risen, and their commitment to each other has been solidified in a way that can’t be manufactured. This season, through adversity and triumph alike, Blanchard cheer proved exactly what they are capable of.
