This past weekend, I got to experience the Cheerleading Worlds for the very first time. The Cheerleading Worlds is an invite-only competition for the highest levels in cheerleading—level six and seven only. My division was all-girl Senior Extra Small and there were about 30 plus teams! 

My team, SC Cheer Fearless, arrived in Orlando, Florida about three days before we actually competed. Each day we had practice in the morning, practice in the afternoon, and then team bonding at one of the parks at Disney World. We got to go to Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom. In my opinion, Epcot was definitely the best park because we got to eat “around the world” and try tons of different/new foods. I also had like four different slushies which are essential in the hot weather. 

At Worlds, you compete the first day in order to qualify for the next day—so competing two days is not always guaranteed. Our first competition day was Sunday afternoon, and we hit a great routine. 

Later that night, we all met up in the coaches room and anxiously waited to see if our name would be called to compete another day. The coaches went up the whole list from 32nd place and called our name in first place by only 0.05 points!

Going into the next day, we were all super nervous because we wanted to stay in first. Not only did we gather the courage to push aside our nerves and give it our all on stage, but we hit the best routine of our season!

At awards, I was beyond nervous because I did not know if our routine was good enough to keep the very small lead we had. The award announcers began to announce the top ten teams, and once they reached the top three, I was SHAKING. They finally called our name in first, and streamers went flying everywhere! Through happy sobs, the whole team was celebrating our win.

Winning Worlds was really special because it was the final event that completed two years of my team being undefeated. We had worked so hard all year—giving it our all in every competition—so winning Worlds was such an amazing reward. This Florida trip was one of many, but it was definitely the best one!