Hart High School’s cheer competition team left for the Universal Cheerleading Association competition in Orlando, Florida at the ESPN World Wide of Sports February 5. 

The girls were able to go to Florida because they qualified for the tournament at their first competition November 11.

During their competition in November, the team competed in division one (non-tumbling), and left it up to the judges to decide whether they would go to the biggest competition of high school cheer. 

After their performance, the judges decided that Hart was worthy of competing in Florida. Hart received a bid, which is given to the top three teams from the first competition, meaning that the Indians’ performance ranked in the top three of that competition.

Hart trained routinely for their chance to shine in Florida for the three months that preceded their flight. 

On the first day of the competition, the team was able to achieve a nearly perfect routine, meaning there were no mistakes, during prelims. Despite their mistake-free performance, other teams with more difficult stunts came out on top. Hart was unable to beat some of these top tier teams in the judges’ eyes, limiting their competition to one day since they were unable to make it to the semi-finals. Without securing a spot to the semis, Hart didn’t qualify to compete beyond the first day. 

“We were all so lucky to get a bid to go to Florida,” said sophomore Sarah Ann Wathen.

Though they only competed for one day, the team made the most of their trip across America as they went to Disney World and participated in a lot of team bonding activities. They returned home February 10.