Everyone who comes to state wants to see cheer. You get this feeling of, ‘This is where I belong. This is where they want me.’ And it gives you so much more motivation to perform.”

Senior Tiffany Krueger

TORRINGTON – The Torrington High School (THS) cheerleading team stepped onto the stage at the Wyoming State Cheer and Dance Spirit Competition for the first time in nine years on January 24.

The event took place at the Ford Wyoming Center and thousands of cheerleaders, dancers, parents, relatives, coaches and fans packed the seats.

“(The event center) was so full – you couldn’t see any space open,” THS senior and cheerleader Tiffany Krueger said. “There were people cheering and hollering.”

The crowd was almost standing room only.

“I think they actually sold out of tickets,” sophomore Kayleigh Norton added. “It was a really fun experience.”

Sophomore Ava Mattis agreed.

“It was obviously nerve-wracking, but it was cool to be able to perform something we’ve been working on for so long in front of that many people,” Mattis said. “The atmosphere was amazing.”

The reality of state cheer and dance is far removed from the shenanigans depicted by Hollywood in the 2000 cult classic “Bring It On.”

“The energy was really positive going in (at state),” Mattis remarked. “Before we went down to perform, all the other teams would tell us, ‘Good luck.’”

The tournament opened with a singing and dancing game similar to duck-duck-goose to break the ice between the teams, Norton explained.

Cheerleaders and dancers from opposing teams also exchanged decorated pins emblazoned with encouraging slogans like, “Good luck,” or “You’re gonna do great,” before the competition, Krueger and Mattis added.

“The support from the other teams helped a lot,” Norton said.

The camaraderie boosted the Torrington cheerleading team’s confidence as each athlete prepared to take the state stage for the first time in their high school careers. 

“Everyone who comes to state wants to see cheer,” Krueger said. “Everyone is yelling for us, cheering us on. You get this feeling of, ‘This is where I belong. This is where they want me.’ And it gives you so much more motivation to perform.”

Torrington competed in the 3A gameday category and advanced to eighth place on the team leaderboard with 83.35 points – a solid finish for a team completely new to the state experience.

And this year is only the beginning as Torrington plans to return next year, bigger and better.

“We’re building it,” Mattis said. “Hopefully next year we’ll be able to do more categories. This year was just a stepping stone.”

All about those lines

Krueger set her sights on performing at state long before picking up a pompom at THS.

“I’ve always wanted to do cheer since I was a little girl,” Krueger said. “I remember my sister telling me stories about how they would go watch teams at state and how they would do all these different stunts. Going to state has kind of been a dream of mine ever since I started my freshman year. I kept asking coach, ‘Next year, are we going to state?’”

A large enough group of girls went out for cheerleading this year at THS and head coach Kelsey Grant gave the green light for the team to perform at the state spirit competition in 2025.

Torrington cheerleaders began practicing their state routine in early December, coinciding with the start of the basketball season. 

Many cheer and dance teams commence work on their routines months earlier, typically when football is underway, but Torrington lacked a full roster until the winter season, Krueger explained.

“We did not even have half the time that (other teams) did,” Krueger said. “We had to learn everything on speed run. It was a lot of hard work on our part. I was shocked that we placed as well as we did with half the time and resources as some other schools.”

The cheerleaders put their noses to the grindstone.

“We spent some half days practicing four or five straight hours (on weekends),” Norton explained. “We also practiced two hours every day after school.”

The team came up with some of their own cheers for the state routine but needed help from a professional for the more complicated steps and hired choreographer Santi Murillo, a former cheerleader.

“The choreographer taught us everything in one day,” Mattis said. “She came in another time just to tweak things. So we had to really hammer things down when she was here.”

Outside of the two sessions with Murillo, the THS squad relied on their own abilities, along with “a lot of videos,” Mattis added.

“It was like football when they watch game film,” Krueger noted.

At the state competition, a panel of 12 judges scrutinize each cheerleading and dance routine, deducting points if anything falls out of line.

“The judges start with a score of 10,” Krueger explained. “They can only dock you for things like stepping on something or dropping something. They also score you on how your choreography went and how the lines were. You have to be in perfect lines. We had a lot of emphasis on the lines.”

A 'creative sport'

Cheerleading combines athletics with the performing arts.

“Cheer is a very creative sport,” Mattis said. “It’s interesting to watch how it’s been, over the years, not classified as a sport or seen as unathletic. But you watch those girls do those flips in the air and realize it takes a lot of athletic ability.”

Plus, there are the many hours of blood, sweat and tears spent practicing cheer routines – the effort no different than in other sports – including those five-hour sessions on Saturday mornings before state. 

Krueger found motivation to stick with cheerleading out of a desire to be around and support other people.

“I’m kind of a people person,” Krueger said. “I love being out there and yelling for (a team), cheering them on when nobody else wants to bring that positivity. We’re trying to give them some hope, tell them to ‘keep going.’ And I think that’s the motivation they need to keep on doing what they do.”

Norton also found camaraderie in cheerleading.

“I think it’s a good way to stay connected with people from school and is a good way to make new friends,” Norton added.

Mattis started out in the dance studio and decided to try cheerleading as an extension of dance.

“I grew up going to cheer camps and I always saw the cheerleaders on the sidelines,” Mattis added. “The energy was so different (with cheer). You look at them and see them beaming on the sidelines and you’re like, ‘Woah! They are picking everybody up.’”

Krueger, Norton and Mattis each thanked their coaches – Kelsey Grant and Keely Leo – along with their families, parents and professional choreographer, Santi Murillo, for helping the team reach its goals of competing at the state championships.