Mahomet-Seymour Junior High Cheer places fifth at IESA State Competition

BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com

The Mahomet-Seymour Junior High cheerleading squad placed fifth at the IESA state competition on Saturday.

The 16-member squad began training for the 2019-20 season after tryouts last May.

“For most of the summer, they go to camp and have practice, so that’s really where they learn just the basics of how to start and tumble,” head cheer coach Caroline Hopper said.

Some of the squad members who attend Twist and Shout Dance and Cheer or iForce, came in with a tumbling background. 

Using those building blocks, the Bulldogs began to perfect what they’d learned to cheer at a couple Mahomet-Seymour Youth Football League games, and the Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School boys’ and girls’ basketball home games.

From September to December, the team also worked on putting its routine together for competition season.

After taking a few years off from competing against other junior high schools state-wide, Mahomet-Seymour jumped back into the mix in 2019, taking first in Illinois Cheerleading Coaches Association competitions in New Berlin and Knoxville.

The ranking didn’t come without obstacles, though. 

“We had one girl get really sick, so we had to take a person out,” Hopper said. “You wouldn’t think it would be that difficult to just take someone out, but it changes all of your formations, the stance that they’re in, and the jobs of different people.”

Hopper said the girls didn’t miss a beat.

In fact, they were more concerned about their ill teammate than what they would have to change to make the routine work.

“It was really inspiring to see the way that the girls responded,” she said. “They didn’t even think about the routine when I told them; they asked ‘Oh my gosh, is she okay? How can we love her? What can we do for her?’

“But then, that gave them that strength to come in and be like, ‘We can do it,’” Hopper said. “That’s not an issue for us. They changed it and were amazing.”

Hopper said as soon as she was named the head coach, she wanted her athletes to know that her focus wasn’t just what they accomplished on the court or field, but rather who they are as a person.

“The foundation of our team has really been built around that; being a good athlete has really come second,” she said. “This has benefited us because they could lift each other up as people and love each other as people and work through those hardships that you face in athletics together for a much better result for all of them.”

Hopper said that the team’s ‘light’ was not only infectious among team members, but even throughout the school.

“They just have so many skills that are so past what many junior high teams have,” Hopper said. “They’re just very talented, very driven to get new skills; they have an insane amount of tumbling and stunting talent.”

People who normally came to the game to cheer on the junior high basketball teams, began to come to watch the cheerleaders, too.

“They will do back handsprings spelling out Bulldogs,” she said. “When you see 10 girls doing (eight) back handsprings in a row, it gets people excited.”

“They have kind of gotten everyone really excited to see that it is a sport, it’s not just standing on the sidelines cheering.”

The Bulldogs did cheer on the sidelines, but they also put in the time at practice, running laps and working on tumbling. 

Hopper said that the girls accomplished what many cheer groups can’t do.

“They know how to get people excited, which you don’t always see,” she said. “They make it fun.”

The team’s ‘bubbly’ dynamic lends itself to great performances.

Unlike many stories of junior high drama on cheer squads, Hopper believes that each of the girls enjoyed being around one another. 

She said that teammates like Brinley Benson had everyone laughing all the time.

“It doesn’t matter what she says, it doesn’t matter what she does, she just somehow gets everyone to laugh,” Hopper said.

Captains like Taylor Good and Grace Collins also added compassion to the team.

“If we could have 50 Taylor Goods this world would be such a better place,” Hopper said. “I mean it’s already a better place because she’s in it. 

“She is just passionate about other people. She works so hard. She will do absolutely anything that you tell her, and she’ll put a positive spin on anything.”

Collins came into the season with little confidence, and Hopper has enjoyed watching that confidence grow. 

“She started out the season so worrisome about herself and what other people think and if she didn’t have this skill,” Hopper said. “She has totally overcome that and been such a leader for our team.”

Hopper said that parents have come to share similar stories with her throughout the season.

“We’ve seen a lot as parents have come to us saying ‘My kid went through this, and now they’ve done (cheerleading) and they are so much happier,’” Hopper said. 

“I see them just enjoying themselves and enjoying life when before I was seeing so much of junior high and the drama that happens bringing them down; lots of comparing themselves to other people. And now, they kind of look past that and see themselves for who they are and lift each other up.”

Lacey Bushman also led the team, overcoming every injury, never missing one game or competition.

“If you ask her to do something she’s gonna throw it,” Hopper said. “She has very, very elite tumbling skills and she’s just a good flyer.”

“She just has the mindset of, ‘I can do anything and I can do it well,’” Hopper said.

With talented individuals, the Bulldogs wanted to showcase their talents on the competition stage. The team, collectively, was interested in taking its sideline game to the next level under Hopper’s leadership. 

“We want for the school to build (the cheerleading) program back up because there are a lot of people in this town that are just interested in it,” Hopper said.

Although the Bulldogs placed first in their prior two competitions, the IESA state competition was a bit daunting.

Instead of having a regional, then state, cheer squads only compete at the state level. While not all junior high schools have a competitive cheer team, some just do sideline cheer, Mahomet-Seymour competed against 21 other schools in its class.

Of the 21 teams, 11 teams were announced and eliminated. As judges announced schools from the Top 10, Hopper said she got so excited she nearly cried.

“I was so proud of them,” Hopper said. “It’s just another one’s knocking off, another one’s knocking off, and they were going higher and higher and higher.”

When Mahomet-Seymour was announced in fifth place, Hopper said the girls could not contain themselves.

“They were all just jumping and screaming and they were so excited, which was really cool to see,” she said.

Mahomet-Seymour executed one of its more difficult routines at the state competition, but scored lower than it had during the other performances during the season. 

Hopper said that some of that comes from the bias that’s associated with subjective scoring.

“We didn’t score as high and that was frustrating to them because they’re like, but we could have done better,” she said. “I think that will just motivate them to work even harder next year.”

After a bit of a break, Hopper will join with coach Carrie Bushman to schedule tryouts in May and focus on the upcoming year.