After months of preparation, the Powell High School Cheerleaders made the journey down to Laramie to compete at 7220 Spirit Championships. After losing the opportunity to travel the prior year due to COVID, the team was looking forward to showing off their skills. 

“It was a bummer to not have [competition] last year,” sophomore Olivia Wells said. “It was a new experience for pretty much everyone.”

The Game-Day competition consists of a band dance, situational cheer based upon prompt, crowd leading cheer and fight song. Scoring is based on crowd involvement, stunting and even the cheerleaders’ smiles.

First, second and third place trophies were handed out, along with a Judges’ Choice award and Best Sportsmanship. Kelly Walsh High School was the large division winner, Buffalo High School was the small division champions and Green River High School Dance Team won the dance portion of the competition. The Powell Cheer Team participated in the large division, but did not make the cut for the top three.

“We did the best we could given the circumstances,” sophomore Maddie Johnson said. “We did our routine well, it just wasn’t as good as the bigger schools.”

The Lady Panther team traveled to Laramie with fourteen girls, three of which joined late in the season. Sophomore Kolby Chrichton is the only boy on the team. However, he was unable to attend the Game-Day competition. 

With the football season over and the Game-Day competition behind them, the Powell cheerleading team is prepping for both their State competition and the basketball season.

“It was a really nerve racking experience,” freshman Venice Gann said. “The atmosphere was really tense, but we had a fun time… I can’t wait for state.”