The OCU competitive cheerleading team are officially 2021 national champions.
The team competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics competitive cheerleading championship March 12-13 at Lee Lohman Arena in Davenport, Iowa.
The Stars won the national title with a preliminary score of 90.25 and a finals score of 91.95, rounding out their overall score to 91.53. St. Ambrose University (Iowa) placed second with a score of 91.1, and Indiana Wesleyan University (Ind.) placed third with a score of 90.56.
This victory marks the fourth time OCU cheer has won a NAIA title, after previously winning the championship in 2014, 2015 and 2017.
The win also pushed OCU Athletics to a new milestone, marking its 70th national championship across all sports, as well as its 28th consecutive year earning at least one national title.
Zachary Prall, acting senior, said the team was determined to end their season as national champions.
“I’ve been on the team for four years, and everyone has known that we have been good enough to be at the top every year, and I think, for one reason or another, every time we just fell short,” Prall said. “I think it really was time for the team to just lock in and come out on top this year.”
Prall said the team’s preliminary performance in the competition did not meet their expectations.
“It was weird, on Friday we didn’t really have the best performance that we thought we could do. We’ve done a lot better,” Prall said. “We were the last team to go on Friday, so I think having those nerves all day tired people out, mentally and physically. Also, it was a new day, and I think that was nerve-wracking for some people. We just needed to get those nerves out in order to come back the next day and do really well.”
The team still managed to snare the top preliminary score of the day.
Prall said the team’s finals performance proved to be much more satisfactory.
“The second day, we came out and did the absolute best we possibly thought we could,” Prall said. “You could just see it on everyone’s face after the music stopped. Everyone knew that we gave 110 percent and everything that we had, and I think what was most fulfilling is that we left everything on the mat, and there was no question about what we could have done better.”
Alicia Bailey, head competitive cheer coach, said the team had no idea if they would snare the title.
“It was very, very close,” Bailey said. “We were hoping that what we had done would be enough to stay on top, but with cheerleading there’s so many things being judged that you just don’t know how the judges will score you.”
Bailey said performances were judged based on ten different scoresheet categories and subcategories, including stunts, pyramids, tumbling, jumps, basket tosses, difficulty, execution and choreography.
Bailey said she knew the team could win and that this year was the most confident she’s felt as a coach approaching competitions.
“Our goals were to do the best we could with what we had, so we spent a lot of time focusing on us, as a team, rather than what other teams were doing, because, at the end of the day, that’s all you really can do,” Bailey said. “I gave them skills that we knew we could perform and perform well, so that they could be confident with the routine they put out on the mat.”
Bailey said she believes the team ultimately pushed through such a challenging year because they never wasted time and cherished every opportunity to practice and improve their routine.
“We only had three freshmen on the mat, so having a bunch of upperclassmen and people with experience helped with that condensed timeframe,” Bailey said.
Bailey said the team was not entirely convinced the championships would not be canceled for a second time, and were overjoyed when the competition officially began and they realized they would be able to perform.
“I think we were just grateful,” Bailey said. “I can tell you, every single competition this year, the kids, or I should say student athletes, just looked at each other and were like, ‘hey, we actually get to compete today,’ and we did the same thing when we got to Iowa: ‘hey, we made it here. Hey, we passed our covid tests,’ like ‘that’s a win right there,’ because we couldn’t get that far last year.”
The Stars also qualified for the 2020 NAIA championships, but the competition was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns.
Prall said not being able to compete for last season’s title was upsetting. He said the team was already at the championship location in Davenport, Iowa when it was canceled. He said the team’s 2021 competition preparation timeline was drastically shortened due to COVID-19 protocols, which prohibited student athletes from practicing outside of small groups.
“This year has been absolutely insane with obstacles,” Prall said. “Usually, we get our routine in August, and we start practicing and doing choreography towards the end of October, so we would have the routine October, November, the beginning of December, then we would leave for Christmas break and be able to come back to start working towards competition season. Well, this year, we didn’t get our routine until January, so we’ve only had our routine for around seven weeks, which isn’t even a quarter of what that time would normally be.”
Prall said spectators were not allowed at the championships, and masking and social distancing guidelines were strictly enforced for approved athletes, coaches and staff. He said every athlete was tested for COVID-19 prior to travelling and before competing, and received daily health screenings throughout the competition.
Prall said he has cheered with some of the greatest athletes he has ever worked with during his time on the team.
“I just wish people would know the legacy, and the hard work that has been put in, you know?” Prall said. “There’s just been so many great people who have come out of that organization, even just in the last 10 years, and it has made an impact on campus. It has made an impact on OCU Athletics and beyond. I think cheer gets overlooked as a sport, in general, just because it is such a newly sanctioned sport, and I think if people paid a little more attention, they’d really be impressed with the things some of these athletes do. They put their bodies on the line every day, and I wish people saw that more.”
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