Randall cheerleaders recently went to NCA, a national cheer competition that is held every year for school cheer teams. Randall placed 18th in the nation.

“At NCA we compete against schools of all sizes across the nation, so I am very proud of them for all of their hard work,” cheer coach Tarran West said.

NCA and the state competition are two completely different competitions. In the state competition, the team competed with only schools in the 1-4A division. But, at NCA the cheerleaders compete with schools of all sizes across America, so the competition is steeper.

“After performing I felt a lot of mixed emotions because I knew it would be the last time I would perform with my team,” senior Kylie Glenn said. “I had so much adrenaline at first, but when it was over, I had an overwhelming amount of emotions.”

The seniors on the team are having a lot of their “lasts,” so they wanted to make their NCA performance count.

“On the mat on Sunday, all I thought was that I needed to give all my energy because I’ll never do it again,” senior Jadyn Furman said. “As soon as we were done and got off the mat, me and Kylie walked back to get our backpacks hugging each other and crying, proud of each other.”

Going from state to NCA in just 2 weeks takes a lot of hard work and motivation. The team needed not just their coaches, but people in their life outside of cheer to continue to push them to be better.

“My dad has been the person who has kept me motivated throughout my cheer career,” Furman said. “Every competition, he stands in the crowd in front of the stage and waves his hat around until I see him. He always holds “I love you” in sign language. It means a lot to have that kind of support.” 

The cheer season is slowly coming to a close, and Randall should be very proud to have the team that we have here. We wish them the best in the future.