The Bayfield High School cheer team earned second place last weekend in the Colorado State Spirit Championship – after years of chasing the spot.
This is the third consecutive year that Wolverine cheer placed as one of the top four teams and made it into the final round. The 15-person, coed team competed against 14 other teams in the 2A/3A division. The Wolverines set their eyes on the runner-up spot and, after months of hard work, earned the placing.
“Bayfield is making a name for themselves. They’re working hard,” said Annette French, Bayfield cheer head coach. “Now, we have some true talent, and we’ll continue to have some more talent coming in.”
Bayfield earned 65.5 out of 100 points. Coal Ridge High School in Denver County, Bayfield’s biggest rival, took first place with, 90.4 points – scores as high as 5A division teams. Alamosa High School of Alamosa County placed third with 61.3 points.
“I just told them, at this point, there’s nothing more that we can do,” French said, recalling what she told the team before the competition. “You just need to go out there with confidence, walk off the floor with confidence and leave it all on the mat.”
French said that the team’s tumbling, stunts and strong cheer routine helped beat the competition.
Four team members accomplished an advanced move, the coed lib, which involves a team member using one hand to balance a flyer, who was standing on one foot. Seniors Dawson French and Kalon Mead successfully balanced flyers sophomore Alexia Woold and junior Kaeli Marx during the competition.
“For our team to be executing that level of skill is pretty awesome for a 2A/3A team,” said French, who is also Dawson French’s mother.
Three team members overcame injuries to compete last weekend. In one case, Tristan French, a sophomore and another of the coach’s children, stepped up. With two weeks left before the competition, French learned to perform in a new stunt group, filling in for injured teammate Bella Madonna, a junior.
Over the summer, the Wolverines looked at all of the banners in the practice gym. The last time the cheer team earned a banner was in the late 1990s. This year, they wanted to be runner-up to Coal Ridge and add a new banner to the gym’s collection.
“Just to be able to finally get that ... I think we were one of the loudest groups to get second place,” French said. “That was exactly what we knew we could achieve, and we did.”
smullane@durangoherald.com
