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 Name the only Lincoln
Railer competitive sports team, boys or girls, which in the
first two years of competition advanced a team to their
state competition both years.
I think you would be
right if you guessed the LCHS competitive cheer squad. And
while that fact might someday find its way to an LCHS trivia
game, it certainly was not a trivial pursuit for this group
of talented athletes.
Last year, having
formed its first competitive cheer squad ever, LCHS landed a
16th-place finish in the IHSA state competition.
The 2009 version of the Railer squad looked to raise the bar
even higher this year by not only finishing higher, but also
going to state in two different state competitions. And
raise the bar they did!
After qualifying for
both the IHSA state cheer competition and the Illinois
Cheerleading Coaches Association state finals in January,
the stage was set for the last two weekends of state-level
competition. It was two more weeks of intense work that
ended in two weeks of glory for these 16 Railer
athletes.
At the IHSA
competition in Bloomington's Cellular One Coliseum on
Feb. 6, the Railers put on another great
performance without any technical deductions from the
judges. The remaining scoring is based on a rubric where
several judges subjectively rate the team's stunting,
choreography, cheering, tumbling and several other factors.
When all the cheering was done, the Railers' point total was
ranked as the 13th-best performance (two teams
tied for 11th) in the state of Illinois in the
medium varsity division established by the IHSA. The result
was not as high as the team felt was justified, but it was a
great result nonetheless.
Lemont was crowned the champion
by IHSA after an additional performance on Saturday, with
Richton Park taking second-place honors.
The squad next moved
on to its ICCA state finals appearance Feb. 14.
This time the venue was the Prairie Capital Convention
Center in Springfield. The high school competition began at
9 a.m. Saturday, and teams performed until after 6 p.m. before the day
was finished.
The ladies from LCHS
put on another flawless performance and were called back to
the Convention Center floor as one of the 10 finalists in
their division. The Railers fared even better in this
second state final appearance, bringing home a sixth-place finish in the medium varsity division.
An excellent
Mount Vernon team captured the state ICCA title.
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As the 2009
competitive cheer season comes to an end, coach Heather Baker
and her athletic squad finish with another impressive year
and added some significant invitational, sectional and state
competition hardware to the LCHS trophy case.
This year's
senior class of Kelsey Bunner, Hilary Hobler, Emily Berglin
and Allissa Martin leave with the satisfaction of knowing
that they helped lead their team to state finals level in
both of their years of competition.
The 12 athletes who
remain complete this year knowing they have a great base to
head into next year's competition. Can the Lady Railers
competitive cheer squad make it a three-peat? I am confident
THEY WILL!
Thanks, ladies. You made your families, your
school and your community proud!
GO, RAILERS!
[By RICK
L. HOBLER]
Respond to the writer at
rhobler@lccs.edu.
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