The Waxahachie High School cheer team plans to support the entire school and the community and has big goals for this school year’s competition.
WHS cheer coach Erica Fritz wants to bring the cheerleaders’ support to more than just the major sports where they are typically seen.
“We try to support all of our programs, and we tried to include even more last year in different ways,” Fritz said.
Last year, the cheerleaders attended a softball game. This past weekend, they attended a cross country meet. Fritz wants to be “as inclusive as possible” and make sure all WHS programs feel supported.
Along with the school, Fritz said they are requested at multiple community events including events like The Oaks’ Back to School Bash and the C10s in the Park meet.
They also serve every year with Miracle League of Ellis County, which is a baseball league for children and adults who face mental and physical disabilities. Fritz said the cheerleaders buddy up with players in the league and help them hit the ball, run the bases and help them in the dugout.
“I don’t know how they do it all,” Fritz said.
She went on to explain how hard her girls work and how talented they are.
This year, Fritz said their biggest goal is to place in the top 10 at the UIL 6A competition. In 2022, the team placed 18th, but they had placed as high as fifth before moving up from 5A to 6A in school size classification. Fritz is hopeful to bring the team back into the top five at this year’s competition.
“We’ve made finals every year, so that’s something that we can be extremely proud of,” Fritz said. “Making finals in itself is huge. There’s anywhere from 60 to 80 teams that we compete against in one day, and only the top 20 move on.”
Because the UIL competition is in game day format, the team performs a band dance, fight song and a cheer. They are limited on higher skill levels, meaning they can only do certain tumbling and cannot perform basket stunts.
Fritz said the team will begin learning their choreography this week and will practice until the competition in January. She said the team already knows its cheer and practices its tumbling and stunts often.
This year, the team will take four alternates along with 27 cheerleaders and three flag guys. The varsity team consists of 24 cheerleaders, and Fritz said they brought up three cheerleaders from their other two teams to be a part of their competition squad.