After a seventh place finish at the 6A state championships, leaving the Huskies one spot short of qualifying for the finals, the cheer program was unable to replicate the performance of last year’s team, which placed third in the competition. Senior captain Alyssa Nixon attributed the team’s inability to advance on to the finals to the multiple injuries which plagued the Huskies, becoming somewhat of a theme on the season.

“Each person matters just as much as the other,” Nixon said. “If something comes your way that you weren’t [expecting], you need to fix it in a matter of second or minutes. Three people that were on the state team couldn’t perform in state, so we had to take a couple people last minute.”

Despite this setback, Nixon said although the placement in state for the Huskies was not ideal, she was proud of her team and felt they had accomplished a lot together.

“We knew what the squad was like going into the competition season,” Nixon said. “Overall, I think we lived up to the expectations that we had.”

Along with a seventh place finish at state, the Huskies earned a Superior rating in the Blue Valley Southwest competition on Nov. 10 and an Outstanding rating in a competition at Louisburg High, Nov. 3.

In her fourth year in the BVNW cheer program and her first as head coach, Madison Llewelyn said she was excited to take on her first year head coaching with a senior class she helped develop since day one.

“I’ve coached the majority of them for three years,” Llewelyn said. “They know how I work, and they can read me. [Also] I know what to expect out of them. In a lot of ways this has been the perfect senior class to start leading the program with.”

This year saw a shift from the conventional methods for the cheer program. Instead of having the traditional seventh hour of the school day coupled with time after school for practice, the Huskies held practice only after school according to junior cheerleader Makenzie Iszard. With this change, Iszard said also brought difficulties to the cheer team.

“There were some times where we’d practice until like nine on like a Tuesday. We’d have homework and grades would be stressed about,” Iszard said. “It may not have helped us improve and it put a lot of stress on the team at times.”

All in all, Iszard said even with the setbacks the practice times and the various injuries provided, the team was able to perform to their best abilities, even if it sometimes went unnoticed.

“We as a team work incredibly hard to do what we can and we’ve had a lot of adjustments this year,” Iszard said. “We do a lot more than just cheer on the sidelines, we do so much more and we’re so dedicated to our sport. I don’t think that should go unheard.”