On Friday, February 13, 2015, Desert Vista cheerleaders loaded up in a bright pink charter bus during fifth hour and headed to Southern California  to compete in their last competition of the year, and then on to Disneyland afterwards to celebrate the end of a long, successful season.

The varsity team placed second in their division with tough competition; the girls tied for second with another team and were one and a half points away from first place.

“I think my team did amazing,” said varsity captain, senior Devon de Simone. “In warm-ups we were all frazzled and did not get a chance to warm up, but because of our dedication in months leading up to it, we did tremendous.”

Junior varsity placed third in their division and freshman placed first.

Maddison Ballard, one of two of the junior varsity captains, was pleased with her team’s performance as well.

“Our team went out there, hit a solid routine and did the best we could and we were successful that way,” said Ballard.

Each team competed in separate divisions based on difficulty level. Varsity competed in Large Varsity – Tumble, junior varsity in Medium Junior Varsity – Tumble and freshman in Small Junior Varsity – Non Tumble.

“I think we did great. We worked together,” said Alex Palmer, a freshman captain.

Each team had different amounts of time to practice. Varsity started training months in advance while freshmen had four weeks to plan their routine with more than one injury along the way.

Freshman Sierra Blemaster broke her toe and was put into a boot so she could not perform. Freshman Alex Palmer sprained her hand, causing an inability for her to stunt, and freshman Luiza Vara had ankle issues throughout practices leading up to competition, causing her to have to roll up her ankles.

Palmer said practices “were stressful and tough but worth it.”

All captains agree; when it came to practices, they were hard.

“Practices leading up to competition [were] intense because we constantly ran our routine and occasionally did conditioning to ensure we were prepared,” said Palmer.

Practices ran five days a week for three hours a day, including game days.

It is evident that all of the team’s hard work and dedication were rewarded with four huge trophies and posters, along with two days in Disneyland.