AU hosts cheer and dance competition
February 17, 2020
Ashland University’s cheer and dance team hosted its own cheer and dance competition on Feb. 16.
With over 70 teams performing, there were three different sessions for the competitors.
“We are hosting 76 performances on Sunday and we have about 650 athletes in for the day,” Head Coach Denise Farnsworth said, “It’s split into three different sessions. Session one is for the non-stunt teams but they may tumble, session two is for the stunting teams, and sessions three is for all dance teams.”
The cheer and dance team hosts this event to assist with banquet gifts for the team members, and it also helps to fund next season’s expenses.
“This [cheer and dance competition] is actually our last event. The money we make from this competition goes towards banquet gifts for the end of the year and also the remaining money will go towards next year,” Farnsworth said.
There are months of preparation in order to put on an event as big as this one, not only for the teams, but for AU.
“It takes months of preparation. Registration for this event started in September of 2019. As the date gets closer and closer things get more intense, and then two weeks before, it’s all-day, every-day work,” Farnsworth said. “The cheerleaders and dancers will start coming in and helping with what we need to do.”
Other than this event, the team members also have lots of preparation for games and other events.
“We have practice two times a week, which runs between two hours to two-and-a-half hours. We also do additional practices sometimes for tumbling and then we have three workouts that we need to complete throughout the week which lasts about an hour,” Sophomore Skyleigh Constable said.
For this specific event, the cheerleaders and dancers will be helping out all day. They will be setting up, directing teams to different rooms and tearing down.
Although the uniforms and memories are only kept for four years by some, it feels like more than just a team to many of the athletes.
“This is a family and we hold everyone accountable here and in return, that makes everyone give one hundred percent the whole time, their investment is huge and I love to see how proud they are of all of our accomplishments,” Farnsworth said.