Worland squad to compete in state cheerleading competition Wednesday

WORLAND – Worland High School cheerleaders are heading to Casper Wednesday morning for the state cheerleading competition, with high hopes and a desire to place better than ever before with a routine choreographed by Worland High School assistant cheerleading coach Amy Worley.

"I think we are starting to figure out what they are looking for; are you in synch, are you using the mat evenly, is your spacing looking good, timing; all that is the stuff they are looking for, not so much how fancy it is. The more jumps you do like three jumps versus just one, you get more points, so we added more. The technical side, hopefully, will give us more points. That's what we are working on right now, tightening up our moves and getting everything in synch," Worland High School cheerleading coach Tammy Montoya said.

Montoya stated that the squad is working on making sure that they are perfectly lined up which can be difficult on a floor that doesn't have the lines like a basketball court does. "Sometimes you start doing your thing and you're not watching; am I lined up with this row, if it's a diagonal are we lined up. When you get out there on that big floor there are no lines. In the gym you have the lines that you can watch and that helps stay in place but when you get there, there is one x in the middle of the whole floor."

Worland High School cheerleading squad consists of four freshmen, one sophomore, one junior and two seniors who have been working on their 3A non-stunt floor routine, which is two and a half minutes long, for months.

Montoya explained that she had the squad perform their routine during regionals to help them get the jitters out and to be ready to perform Wednesday.

In 2017 the Worland High School cheering squad placed ninth, earning more points than Thermopolis and Buffalo.