Joy’s story of a group of young ladies that out in the hard work to become a national champion:
It’s been close to a week since the Knox Central High School cheerleaders brought home a National Championship, and coach Joy McKeehan is ready to tell the story of a group of girls that put in the work after placing ninth the year before to become NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!
“At the beginning of this year’s cheer season, we set our sights on Nationals in Orlando, Florida. We began this journey back in 2020 with what is now this group of seniors, and made it to the semifinals.
Then last year we made it to finals and placed 9th. These girls have worked tirelessly since May to be prepared for Nationals and performed a flawless and fabulous routine each day!
I’m so proud of the growth I’ve seen in these girls, individually, and as a team. On Friday we earned a score of 97.3 which was the highest score we had ever earned which also came with a 5.0 score for motion technique!
On Sunday night, they came together as a team with a “clean slate” mindset. They were determined, confident and chose to embrace this experience and also to have FUN doing it!
As a coach, I have told my girls there is always room for improvement, but on Sunday night, I shared with them that today there was no room for improvement because they had earned the honor of being a 2023 UCA National Champion. As coaches, we are so proud of them and the hard work that has gotten them to this point. They trusted the process and worked hard to make it happen.
To our community…..”WOW”….. we are so thankful for you and have enjoyed the support and words of encouragement that each and every person, family, friend and business has shown. We shared with the girls on Sunday before they performed that more people than ever were watching and cheering them on back home.
To everyone in our region that reached out to offer a word of encouragement or congrats, we truly thank you. To our administration, parents, family and friends we thank you for all of your support throughout the year… we wouldn’t have made it this far without YOU!! The girls are excited to get back to work to finish off our season. We have the district and region tournaments left to cheer on our Panthers and Lady Panthers and we will do it with Panther pride!”
