Photo courtest of Taylor Monroe
The Munising High School competitive cheer team has just four members, which results in an automatic 10-point penalty. Despite this disadvantage, the team earned first- and second-place finishes at recent events.
By Jennifer Champagne
Managing Editor
Munising’s varsity competitive cheer squad may be small in number, but the Mustangs are putting up scores that turn heads.
In back-to-back competitions last week, Munising finished second Thursday at Bark River-Harris and took first place Saturday at Manistique — all while competing with just four athletes and absorbing an automatic 10-point penalty.
“Thursday we went and competed at Bark River and got second place — we would have gotten first without that 10-point penalty,” head coach Taylor Monroe said.
At Bark River, Munising scored 225.6 in Round 1 and 196.1 in Round 2, both season highs, finishing with a total score of 693.7.
“They did what I asked them to do,” Monroe said. “I always just tell them, ‘Get out there, have fun with it and do what you need to do.’ They really brought the energy this week.”
Weather disruptions made the performance even more impressive. The team had only two practices and competed twice with no practice in between.
“We actually had a group FaceTime and made changes,” Monroe said. “They went out there with warmup time only, and they didn’t mess up. They just got everything done.”
Two days later in Manistique, the Mustangs tightened things even further. They posted a Round 3 score of 287.3 and finished with a total score of 695.68 to take first place.
“They did a lot better in Manistique than they did in Bark River,” Monroe said. “Everything is starting to come together. We don’t need to make big changes anymore — we’re just tweaking the small things.”
One of those tweaks paid off immediately. Munising added triple splits to its routine.
“That bumped our score up by 10 points,” Monroe said. “We’re the only team in the U.P. competing with that skill.”
Senior Athena Platt said the team’s chemistry has been key to its progress.
“Coming in, we were all kind of iffy about each other, but now it’s just like we’re family,” Platt said. “With four of us, there’s a lot of goofing around, but once it’s time to crack down, we do that.”
Platt said trust between teammates is especially critical in competition.
“It’s really important to feel connected to your team and to trust each other,” Platt said. “Trust is everything, especially for the flyer, because Eila has to trust that we’re going to throw and catch her safely every time and protect her no matter what. At the same time, we all have to trust each other to show up, give our full effort and do our part. When there’s real trust and connection, it shows in how we perform. It creates confidence, strength and unity, and that’s what allows us to perform at our best — not just as individuals, but as a team.”
Platt said the Mustangs are already surpassing last season’s marks.
“By our first competition, we were already beating our scores from last year,” she said. “Definitely breaking our personal best.”
Senior Bailey Tyner said competitive cheer is often misunderstood because it does not involve a ball.
“It doesn’t have a ball in it like a lot of sports do, but it is a hard sport,” Tyner said. “Nobody can just jump in and think cheerleading is just dancing around and throwing poms around.”
Tyner said the physical demands of competitive cheer are closer to what fans expect from traditional field and court sports.
“There’s back handsprings, front handsprings, flips and constant movement,” she said. “It takes the same kind of strength and conditioning you see in basketball or football.”
Platt said each athlete carries equal responsibility.
“There’s four of us — we’re each 25%,” she said.
Monroe pointed to sophomore Jocelyn Mendoza’s progress on her back tuck as a clear example of the team’s growth.
“We literally got a judge’s comment that just said, ‘Wow,’ with an exclamation point,” Monroe said. “She went from being scared to doing what the team needed and nailing it.”
Platt said Mendoza’s struggle was mental rather than physical.
“She would land it, but she kept putting her hands down,” Platt said. “We were trying to get her to stop doing that, and when she finally did it at that competition, all of our faces just lit up. She was the happiest girl ever.”
With district competition approaching next month, Munising is currently ranked second in its district and seventh in its division statewide.
“Numbers don’t mean anything if you go out there and bomb it,” Monroe said. “But they’re improving their scores and earning their spot.”
Now, the Mustangs have a different goal: building their fan section.
“If the crowd is exciting and engaging, they’re going to get louder and do their rounds better,” Monroe said. “It really does affect your score.”
Platt said the contrast between Munising and larger programs is hard to ignore.
“We never really have a fan section,” she said. “It’s always empty, and then there’s all the other teams with huge fan sections cheering them on and hyping them up. That would actually mean so much to us.”
Munising competes this Thursday, Jan. 29, at Norway. The Mustangs then host a competition at noon on Saturday, Jan. 31, in their home gym. Admission is $5 at the door.