Coaches: Patrice France (head coach), Lindsea Britton (assistant coach), Mandy Jung (assistant coach), Monet Taylor (assistant coach)
Top Returners: Natalia Alvarez (12), Ashley Arcila (12), Bianca Baciu (12), Isabelle Ceballos (12), Sooa Chai (12), Alyson Chow (12), Evelyn Ju (12), Mackenzy Jung (12), Abigail Taroreh (12)
Last Season: The cheer competition team placed Top 5 in the varsity show cheer non-tumbling novice medium group division at the United Spirit Association Nationals and Top 10 at CIF.
Although France said some on the team felt disappointed with the outcome, she encouraged them to look on the positive side.
“The girls said, ‘Fifth place is not good,’ but I told them, ‘Hey you guys, not everyone gets a trophy, so the fact that you guys are leaving here with hardware at your very first nationals is huge,’” she said.
Outlook: With one year of experience in their pom poms, the Lady Lancers aim to win a CIF championship by incorporating more advanced stunts. They also plan to build a close relationship by attending team bonding activities.
Flier and president Chow said although the stunts are more difficult than last year, she is confident that she and her teammates can make the necessary adjustments.
“I am grateful for our coaches not only pushing us to become better, but also believing in us, even when we lose confidence in ourselves,” she said. “That combined with the team dynamic makes me feel good coming into this season.”
France said the team has been practicing after school and doing lots of conditioning to prepare.
“They want to do good,” she said. “Last year, they wanted to do good as well, but now they just know we’ve got to lock in.”
Base and captain Jung, responsible for lifting and supporting the fliers, said she aims to support the team and push for her best performances.
“I feel super pumped for the competition season this year,” she said. “ I would say our cheer team’s goals for this competition season would be perfecting our routines and to better showcase our school spirit.”
Sophomore Sarina Desai, a varsity base and co-captain, said team bonding activities, such as dinners and arts and crafts, help the Lady Lancers’ chemistry on stage.
Another strength the cheer team has is undergoing a nearly eight-hour long workout session with a United Spirit Association male cheerleader, who also led a routine with the girls, Desai said.
“This year I feel like varsity is ahead of where they were last year,” she said. “Since we got a choreographer to choreograph our routine, everything is mapped out; it feels really organized, and we have a good chance [to succeed].”
The team’s third co-captain, backspot junior Jasmine Diaz, agreed with Desai.
“It was a good base to work off of and figure out where everyone goes,” Diaz said. “It was actually really helpful.”
So far, Desai said the girls have been working to perfect their routines for CIF and national competitions.
“Practices have been going good for us,” the sophomore said. “We are constantly drilling in our routine and putting up our stunts to perfect them.”
France also agreed with Desai’s assessment of the team’s chemistry.
“I feel like they are more of a team,” the head coach said. “They’re close, and they communicate better when they’re stunting this year.”
Although Diaz said the competition in the team’s division will be difficult, she is determined to put a solid routine on the floor.
“We just have to trust ourselves and trust everyone on our team that we can do our best,” she said.
The team will compete Saturday, Jan. 11, at 2:30 p.m. in the USA Southern California Regional IV – CHEER event at Yorba Linda High School.
