Heading to nationals
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on February 9, 2018 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The Goldsboro High School cheerleading team cheers on the Lady Cougars during the first half of their game Thursday night. The team will be traveling to Myrtle Beach in mid-March to compete in the Cheer Ltd. at CANAM Nationals.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The Goldsboro High School cheerleading team cheers on the Lady Cougars during the first half of their game Thursday night. The team will be traveling to Myrtle Beach in mid-March to compete in the Cheer Ltd. at CANAM Nationals.
Full Size
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The squad has set up a GoFundMe account to help them get closer to their fundraising goal of $4,000. To find the page visit gofundme.com and search Help GHS Cheerleaders Make History.
Full Size
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The squad has set up a GoFundMe account to help them get closer to their fundraising goal of $4,000. To find the page visit gofundme.com and search Help GHS Cheerleaders Make History.
After a close run last year, the girls of the Goldsboro High Cheerleading Squad are headed for nationals.
The team will compete at the Cheer Ltd. at CANAM nationals in Myrtle Beach March 17 and 18, where the 16-girl team will compete against other high school teams from around the country in a variety of categories.
Bethany Steward is a teacher at Wayne School of Engineering, and the head coach of the GHS cheer squad, which is made up of students from both schools. She said that getting to the nationals this year took dedication from the girls -- and a busy schedule.
"We have tryouts in April, and then we practice over the whole summer," she said. "Nationals will be our seventh competition this (school) year. We had one in October, one in November, one in December, one in January and one in February."
This is Steward's third year of coaching, and increasing the number of competitions the team travels to was one of her priorities. When the team gets to Myrtle Beach in March, they will perform a two-minute-thirty-second routine, consisting of one minute and thirty seconds set to music and another minute of cheer. Some teams also do tumbling, Steward said, but the GHS team will compete in the non-tumbling division.
Getting to this point has not been easy, even outside of the busy schedule. This is the team's first time going to nationals, though they came close last year.
The squad has also had to battle through no small amount of pain. There are 16 girls on the team, but one will not be competing after sustaining serious injuries earlier in the season.
"We had several injuries early on, and we even basically lost that girl because she tore her ACL and meniscus. She stills comes with us to every event, we call her our manager," Steward said. "The girls have worked very hard this year. They were very close to a bid for nationals last year, and I think they really came into this year with a fire and a drive to get that bid this year."
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to raise money for the travel to South Carolina, hotel fees and registration costs.
As of Thursday, the team has raised $2,045, which is more than half of its fundraising goal of $4,000.