The Pep teams competed at their first SHARP International Competition on Dec. 13 at Sierra Vista High School. All three teams won first place and the sweepstakes trophy for Temple City and continued on to the Regionals competition in Anaheim on Jan. 18.
Cheer
Waves of anxiety washed over the Cheer Team as the members ran out to the center of the gym. Although the members had trouble in the beginning, they all managed to pull it together with a score of 93.25.
“We were surprised because right before we were about to go on, no one was hitting anything,” Junior Maria Manjarrez said. “We were all nervous and mad at each other. But when we did it, we hit everything and it was amazing.”
However, one member recently left and Junior Rachel Meach had to step up to take her place as a flyer at Regionals, with only a week and a half to learn the routine.
Even though Cheer had a couple of hard weeks before Regionals, they knew that they would eventually be able to pull through.
“I am proud of these girls,” Captain Senior Annaka Besaw said. “A lot of times, people think that the Pep program is only around to support our sports teams. Though that’s a big part, we have our own competitions where we get to ‘play our sport.’ We train for those two minutes and 30 seconds where we give it our all.”
Song
The six members of Song flashed the judges their biggest smiles as they performed the two minute routine they spent countless hours perfecting. They ended up receiving a score of 92 at the competition.
“It went really well,” Captain Senior Jordan Wilhelm said. “Our coach was really happy.”
To prepare for competition season, the team held two hour practices after school. However, the team had trouble with the routine at first.
“Our coach put a lot of dance tricks in our routine so it was extremely tiring and difficult,” Senior Ashley Api said. “It was upsetting that we couldn’t push through it sometimes.”
In addition to this, Api also suffered a knee injury in the autumn. After resting it, she was able to recover and rejoin the team for competition.
“It was scary,” Api said. “I wasn’t sure how long it would take to heal. In the end, everything turned out fine, so I’m very thankful.”
Fortunately for the team, the hard times have paid off and the team was ready to take on Regionals.
“The best part was having the opportunity to dance with girls who have not only become my friends or teammates, but my family,” Senior Chloe Camarena said. “I wouldn’t trade this team for the world.”
Pep Flags
The members of Pep Flags jumped up screaming as they heard the announcer call out Temple City with a score of 80. Although they were proud of their first place title, they knew that they had a lot of work to do to qualify for Nationals.
“The results were better than expected,” Junior Diana Ren said. “But I think we could have done better. I definitely could have done better. But the best part is just the experience. It’s so much fun and winning is just a plus.”
Like the other two Pep teams, Pep Flags also holds practices every day. They wear wrist weights and run to build endurance and stamina. They also watch the video of their last performance to look for areas of improvement. However, one of their members was absent for the competition and so the rest of the team had to learn to work without her.
“We were missing a part of our team and it took a while to adjust to that,” Ren said. “Another thing that sucked was that almost everyone was sick the week of the competition.”