Cheerleaders aren’t just there to cheer on the sidelines. They did pretty well on their own this season.

On May 3 Beachwood cheerleaders won first place out of five teams at the Virginia Beach US finals in the advanced non-mount JV/Varsity cheerleading division.

The win came as a shock. The cheerleaders had learned their choreography just a few days before the finals and the tumbling was added in last minute.

“They called Beachwood as first place, and we were just looking around like, ‘Are you serious?’” senior Hannah Richardson remembered. “None of us expected it.”

“We were not expecting it,” co-team captain Annie Adelman said. “We thought, ‘Is this for real? … ‘Is this really us?’ … the coaches said, ‘Get up, this is you guys.’”

There are seven US finals competitions. Beachwood chose to go to Virginia Beach in order to escape the cold.

Only a select 12 girls went to this competition. They were chosen through an audition process.

Adelman explained that the routine consisted of cartwheels and jumping, among other exercises.

“We do a two-minute routine in which we do a [combination] of dance and cheer as well as a little bit of tumbling,” she said.

“We didn’t have the experience [with tumbling], so we had to … pick up how to do that really quickly,” junior Angelina Rivera-Torres said.

“[The tumbling routine] could have been better,” coach Colleen Schachtel said. “We want to build [on our skills], even though we started mounting last year, and we did a little bit at our games this year … and get into the mounting division.”

Practices for the competition were held Monday through Friday from 3:15 until 5:30. On Saturdays they practised for up to four hours. Many cheerleaders who play another sport in addition to cheerleading had to abandon that sport because of the rigorous schedule.

“It’s very difficult to get all of our girls together at one time to be able to practice our routine and be consistent,” Adelman said.

Richardson said that they focused on conditioning their bodies to be able to lift girls up, as well as “get[ting] our bodies [in shape] to wear two-piece uniforms.”

“A lot of people don’t consider it a sport, but it is a sport,” Rivera-Torres said. “It’s very dangerous; it’s a lot of activity. You have to flip, you have to scream, and you have to jump. We do throws…and lift girls in the air, so it’s a lot of heavy lifting.”

Teams are judged by a panel of four judges. Each judge looks to grade a different aspect: jumping, tumbling, cheer or dance. They evaluate these categories for difficulty level and endurance.

Scores are normally out of five or out of ten, and they’re all added together and averaged. Their hard work paid off with a score of 80%.

Constructive criticism is also given on the score sheets. This is for the cheerleaders to read and improve their performance.

“[An 80%] is really good, considering we really don’t have tumbling skills,” Schachtel said. “The girls won a banner to hang up, they won their white jacket, and if anyone knows anything about cheerleading, the white jacket is what it’s all about.”

Being more diverse in cheering, Richardson noted, was crucial in this year’s success.

“[We’re] not just standing there cheering; we’re throwing girls up in the air; we’re trying to incorporate flips and back handsprings,” she said.

But there’s more to be gained from cheerleading than the white jackets, matching warmup pants and even championship rings. Cheerleaders gain important skills such as endurance and teamwork.

“You’re with these girls all the time,” Rivera-Torres said. “So it kind of forces [you] to be more social, and be more school spirited, and I’ve developed a lot of friendships through cheerleading.”

“We’ve gotten this far,” Rivera-Torres continued. “We won first place. We’re national champions. It would be great to get more credibility towards what we work so hard for.”