Spirit of the Heart

As the Sacred Heart School cheerleading squad headed to cheer camp two weeks ago, they weren’t expecting to bring home the title of Dance Champion for a routine that the group of girls spent countless hours working to perfect, but that’s exactly what they did.
Senior and co-captain of the squad Kaylie McCoy said, “When they said we had won, I was flabbergasted. It was a great moment because it made all of us realize that the practices were for something.”
Around that same time, SHS’s danceline team was working to bring home their own awards at dance camp.
Danceline member Magen Ardoin said, “We really weren’t expecting to win anything because we were going up against schools like Teurlings. No one understands that the girls from Teurlings only do dance, unlike some of our girls.”
Danceline co-captain Victoria Fontenot then added, “We were the underdogs at camp, so the fact that we got third place in Home Routine was a really big deal.”
Just like any other sports team would do, both squads held tryouts last February to form the best squads possible.
A month after tryouts, the work began with multiple practices a week that sometimes lasted as long as four hours. The girls were even forced to pull Saturday practices from time to time.
For newcomer on the cheerleading squad Anna Beth Briley, adjusting to juggling practices, school work, and other extracurricular activities was a challenge, but it was all worth it.
Briley said, “We were in basketball season during cheerleading tryouts, so that was a stressful time. Luckily my sister Madaline, who was a cheerleader, came home from Monroe to help me prepare for tryouts.”
Cheerleader Addie Pitre felt the same the pressure that Briley experienced, but for a different reason.
Pitre, who is a junior and is new to the squad, said, “I had always wanted to be a cheerleader, but I chose not to tryout for my sophomore year, I guess because I was just too nervous. But for junior year, I decided I would give it a try. I was nervous the whole time during tryouts and their were a lot of tears shed from the stress of it all, but it all worked out in the end.”
For a lot of these girls, the stress is all worth it though, because they are experiencing one of their dreams come true.
Cheerleader Sydni Ortego said, “When it’s something that you’ve always wanted to do, the stressfulness of it doesn’t matter. I’ve always looked up to the cheerleaders, and I can remember watching them do the cheers and then I would mock them. So, it’s exciting for me to be a cheerleader now.”
For their success at camp, the SHS cheerleading squad will be heading to the Louisiana State Capital in January to compete against other SCA champs for Battle at the Capital.
McCoy said, “Competing at Battle at the Capital is a really big deal for us because this is the first time in a long time that Sacred Heart cheerleaders get to go to Battle at the Capital. And, as a senior this means a lot to me.”
For danceline, bringing home third place for their home routine meant that they had unexpectedly overcome hurdles that they were facing going into camp. But the adversities have only created a more unified SHS danceline.
“Not only were we going up against schools that had danceline teams that were twice the size of ours, but we also had one of our dancers that couldn’t make it to camp because she had FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America),” said Fontenot. “We had to change our formation, but we were able to successfully do that, and still get third place.”
Ardoin then added, “It just feels amazing knowing that we were able to accomplish what we did at camp because of the obstacles we faced. Stuff like that brings all of us so much closer together, and makes us even more of a family.”
Danceliner Natalie Doucet said, “We’ve spent so much time together preparing for camp that when we got back I started getting lonesome because we have become like sisters. It made me ready to get back to practice just so I could see everyone.”
Now that camp is out of the way, the dancers are now looking forward to the upcoming football season.
Danceliner Dulcie Miller said, “I’m ready for football because nothing compares to the excitement you feel on game days, especially when you are getting ready to dance and you know you are about to just kill it. It feels so great.”
For the cheerleaders, they are looking forward to football season to begin so that they can show the same support for the football players as they did for them at camp.
McCoy said, “Some of the football players came watch us at camp, and they were saying how excited they were for the season. We really enjoyed having their support. Now we are ready to start learning our game day cheers, chants and dances so that we can get our football team pumped up before games.”
Pitre then said, “Without the cheerleaders and the danceline there wouldn’t be pep-rallies to get everyone pumped up, and people wouldn’t have as much pride in our school. I’m excited for football season, and I’m ready to show how proud we are to represent our school.”