Prep Athlete of the Week: South Cheer Team

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - It’s not every day a local sports team competes in a national competition, but that’s exactly what South’s cheer team did from Feb. 10-12.

They participated in the National Cheerleading Championship in Orlando after punching their ticket to the event at a Colorado regional competition in October.

Once the team qualified for the national event, their coach said she had never seen anything like it.

“When we earned our bid at the Colorado competition, I’ve never seen the kids so excited to get second place before, truthfully. They’re usually like so hard on themselves, but to get second place and then to get that first bid ever to go to nationals was like a once in a lifetime opportunity. It felt like getting first place in that moment,” head coach Madeline Moyte said.

In their first ever national competition, the team ended up placing 18th out of 40 teams participating. They were also the only school there to represent the state of Wyoming. South has been the dominant force in cheer around the state since the school opened in 2010; they won 15 4A state championships in that span.

However, their captains knew how momentous this particular achievement was.

“It feels really cool. I have like a big head about it a little bit. It’s cool just to think that we can be the best at something, but it also takes a lot of hard work and you have to remind yourself to stay humble, otherwise you’ll get too cocky and then fall down,” Shaye Hemenover said.

“This year, us going out there and doing something for our whole community and our whole state is just really putting a good light on our whole school. Not even just this team, the whole school,” Shayla Peterson said.

Congratulations to the South cheer team-- they certainly made Cheyenne and the state of Wyoming proud.

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