On Monday, Sept. 19, the varsity cheerleaders made their final decission about going to state. They decided to not go to the annual State competition held at Mizzou on Oct. 2. The cheerleaders took an anonymous vote during their practice on Monday, and of the 17 members, 14 declined the opportunity according to the varsity coach, Jennifer Denny.

Senior Alyssa Fuqua was one of the three cheerleaders that voted yes on the possibility of performing at State and feels disappointed that she will not be attending the performance for her senior year.

“I feel as though our team believes we won’t make the top five this year; therefore, they believe we shouldn’t compete,” Fuqua said.

Unlike Fuqua, sophomore Abbey Scheinder is content with the fact that they will not be performing at Mizzou like years past.

“We didn’t have enough time to pull everything together and we just weren’t prepared this time around,” Scheinder said.

Scheinder also mentioned that since Homecoming is the night before, the majority of the cheerleaders are somewhat relieved that they won’t be forced to end the night early in order to prepare for the competition the next day.

Coach Denny has a different viewpoint, however, and believes it was the team member’s injuries that held them back this year.

“A lot of the cheerleaders are injured right now, and when it comes down to crunch time, we didn’t have enough time to change everything,” Denny said. “Our team didn’t want to go and perform less than 100% and as their coach, I’m going to support them in whatever they wish to do.”