The Junior Midgets Raiders cheerleading squad placed third out of 14 teams at the Pop Warner National Championships at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
They were one of two cheer squads from Morgan Hill who qualified to go to the national competition.
The Junior Pee Wees likewise moved forward, after placing second at a regional qualifier that brought together teams from around California, Oregon and Washington.
Both teams had one day to compete, but got to spend the week in Florida. While there, they got to visit the Disney World area parks and participated in a party at Disney World with a DJ, snacks and other activities for the girls.
To get to Florida, both squads had to advance out of three levels of qualifying.
They each moved from local qualifiers — which advanced all teams that participated — into a conference championship in early October.
The Jr. Pee Wees faced some stiff competition, including from a squad out of Sunnyvale, which had previously beat the Raiders. The Sunnyvale team took first at that competition, but both teams advanced by virtue of their one-two finish.
While neither team finished in the top 5 in Florida, the Raiders got bragging rights by finishing higher than the Sunnyvale team.
Meanwhile, the Jr. Midgets could have just signed up to go, as they didn’t have anyone competing against them.
But the coaches opted instead to make the girls earn their place in the championships.
The coaches averaged out the scores from other competitions and came up with a number for the girls to beat. They did it with a score of 86 at the Conference championships, which was the best score among all teams.
Morgan Hill didn’t have much competition from the West Coast as the championships were heavily laden with East Coast teams.
The girls, who competed in Level 2 of 4 based on their skill level.
The Raiders did their routine while earning a minor penalty to receive a score of 84.3.
Coming into the competition, the Jr. Midgets wanted to ideally place in the top 5, but certainly do better than 11th that they did last year.
To their surprise, they got third.
“I think had inkling they could do it, but not third,” said coach Sarah Chafer.
