South Carroll cheerleading wins Class 1A winter state championship

There was quite a bit of stress while waiting for the results to be unveiled.

South Carroll cheerleaders knew they did a good routine Tuesday at the winter state championship meet, but they knew they weren’t perfect. Meanwhile, they watched other schools perform just as well.

It left several athletes unaware of what was about to happen.

“It’s definitely scary waiting for them to announce the top three,” South Carroll senior Daniel Chinquee said. “I’m not sure about everyone else, but personally I had no idea we were going to win. I didn’t go into awards expecting to win because everyone did a good job, everyone was at the same level.”

“It was super stressful because we didn’t necessarily hit our routine 100% and all the other teams were so amazing as well,” said Molly Mouillesseaux, another senior captain. “So we honestly had no idea what the results were going to be like.”

When it was all said and done, South Carroll’s score of 120 was better than all of Class 1A and the Cavaliers won the program’s first state championship.

“It was incredible,” Chinquee said. “It was an amazing feeling, especially because, this is my senior year and this is the first time we’ve won a state title.”

For coach Jennifer Bostic, the moment was unforgettable.

“When they announced us as state champs, the team instantly jumped and everything around me once again was a blur,” she said. “I wish I could’ve captured everyone’s face at that moment. It was a memory I’ll never forget. It wasn’t tears of winning, it was the looks on their faces that gives you chills. We were so excited we didn’t go up to grab our plaque and medals, they brought them to us. I couldn’t stop shaking. Once we got the team to settle down while they continued with awards I was still shaking. It didn’t seem real. As I handed out the medals the team was still wiping their tears.”

Mouillesseaux said the team went through its ups and downs over the course of the season, but all those trials and tribulations paid off.

“It just felt like all of our hard work paid off because we worked so hard and had so any hardships throughout the season,” she said, “with one of our main flyers getting hurt and having to put in a brand new freshman flyer who’s incredible, it all paid off in the end.”

Bostic saw a mix of focus and emotion before Wednesday’s competition that left her with a good feeling of how the night might unfold.

“After walking into the event, the excitement and adrenaline hit. As we headed back to warm-ups you could see the focused looked on each of their faces,” she said. “They took the mat at warm-ups with high confidence and pepping each other up, cheering each other on, preparing them to do their best. We hit our routine at warm-ups solid which left them with smiles. The team gathered in a circle for one last time this season for Daniel’s pep speech, knowing it was going to be his last. You could see the seniors eyes fill up with tears. When they took the mat, I didn’t see fear or nerves, I saw confidence and a team as one saying they got this. They gave it their best.”

Mouillesseaux said she couldn’t point out when she knew South Carroll had a championship-level team, but it was something she said she saw coming together every day.

“Just when we’re at practices, we’re having so much fun,” she said. “The practices weren’t necessarily the greatest of practices, not every single one of them, but practices that were super awesome, they were great and led us to this point.”

Chinquee agrees that the connection the team has made it what it became.

“We all trust each other, we get along really well,” he said. “We have a fun time. it makes doing the routine and practicing it and working on it really fun. It definitely shows when we’re out performing that we’re having a good time.”

The team featured a mix of grade levels with a high number of talented freshmen mixing with the more experienced athletes. That put an added emphasis on the seniors to be leaders.

“I feel that especially because I’m a guy, I can give a lot of guidance, because when I came in as a freshman, I was completely lost,” Chinquee said. “I had no idea what I was doing, but there were a couple of people that really helped me figure out where I was going and what I was doing. I take what they did and offer that to the new people now. I can give them the answers they need and they know I’m really here to help them.”

“It was definitely hard to not only be on the team but to be a good role model and have to, not necessarily teach, but show what it’s like especially to the freshmen who had never done this before,” Mouillesseaux added. “But it was super cool and an interesting experience to be a leader.”

While the seniors depart the program, they leave behind a legacy of being the program’s first state champions. They also leave behind a group well equipped to bring more hardware home in the future.

“A lot of the girls on the team this year are freshmen so they have a lot more years to keep building the program and going to more states and hopefully winning more states,” Mouillesseaux said. “I’m excited to see how far they get to go.”

While others might come, Bostic said it will be hard to replicate the first championship.

“Overall it was an experience you will never forget and a feeling you’ll never be able to explain,” she said. “The way those kids faces lit up is a moment I’ll never forget.”