On February 7, 2024 the Dyer County High School Coed Cheer Team left for Orlando Florida. This is where Nationals and Worlds take place for competitive high school cheer teams. They arrived on the 7th and started preparing and practicing for the competitions to come.
On the 8,9, and 10 cheerleaders spend their time waking up early, going to gyms, and practicing their routine as much as possible. There are practices at ESPN, which is the location of the competitions, as well as other teams gyms that have been rented out. These days are usually very long and they are practicing for almost the entire day.
On the 10th cheerleaders were expected to wake up early and get ready for their first competition. This day they will have Nationals and the next day they will have Worlds. They have to be in uniform and ready to go by the time the bus is ready. They then take a bus to ESPN so they have time to practice before their scheduled competition time. At 6:34 it was time for them to take team pictures. At 6:44 it was time for them to warm up. Depending on the day and situation you may only get to practice outside or both inside and outside. Then the teams line up in order and they wait for their turn to compete. Their scheduled competition time was 7:19 for Nationals. While the cheerleaders are waiting to compete, family and friends go to a section close to the stage to watch and cheer for the team. There were 5 teams in the Large Varsity Coed division this year. These teams were Dyer County, Tahquitz, Graves County, Russell County, and Bartow. After all the teams in the division have competed they wait for the results. The three teams with the highest scores continue on in the competition to finals. Dyer County placed fourth and was unable to compete in finals. They were then done competing for the night and went back to the hotel.
February 11th is the day the team competes for the Worlds title. They go back to ESPN and begin to prepare again. There were two teams competing for Worlds. It was Dyer County and The Cedar Grove Falcons from Jamaica. Team photos took place at 4:47 and quickly after it was time to practice. They practiced for 10 minutes at 4:57. They then lined up once against and prepared to perform at 5:32. After 12 teams had competed they all came onto the floor and got ready for awards to be announced. Dyer county won first place and holds the title for World champions. After this they went back to the hotel and got ready for a party at the parks for all the cheerleaders. This is a celebration for the season coming to an end and all the teams that had a victory.
On the 12th the teams spent their last day at the parks enjoying time with one another. On the 13th they left early that morning to get on a plane and return home.
