MOSES LAKE — No question about it, there were expectations for the Moses Lake High School cheer team going into the state championship.

Other teams wanted to beat Moses Lake ­­— the Chiefs were, after all, four-time defending state champions in the 4A Coed Traditional Cheer category.

“We have a lot to lose,” freshman Gianna Eccles said.

But those other schools will have to wait until next year. The MLHS cheer squad successfully defended its title in state competition Feb. 4 and 5.

“All the previous seniors texting us to keep the legacy alive,” senior Sophia Persichini said.

“And seeing the lineup of schools we were going against — there were some pretty well-funded, nice schools, from big cities, (with) some great skills,” junior Harlan Haring said. “It was pretty nail-biting,”

“It’s definitely hard to know that everyone is trying to beat you,” sophomore Taybree Miller said.

“Five in a row,” freshman Joscelyn Garcia said.

The Chiefs came home with a second title in the Coed Game Day category. Coach Mikey Carlile said that was something new.

“That category we have never won,” Carlile said. “We actually won in both categories that we entered.”

“Winning both divisions we competed in was really surprising,” Persichini said.

Each division has its own challenges.

“They’re both difficult in a different sense,” Persichini said. “They require different skills.”

“Traditional is more like a stunt sequence to show our degree of difficulty,” senior Izmani Nunez said.

“More advanced stunts, advanced dances, and a wall, which is combined stunts with a (more advanced) skill level,” Persichini said.

The Game Day category emphasizes what fans will see on the sidelines.

“Cheers, and more simple stunts,” Nunez said.

“A separate routine,” Persichini said. “The Game Day routine is more of a dance, the fight song, we have some simple stunts with a cheer. That’s more of what you would see on the football field from us.”

“I would say that for Coed, you definitely have to be really good at stunting and that has to be your strong suit. For Game Day, you have to be good at performing,” Miller said.

Each school gets about two and half minutes for their traditional routines, and Carlile said it’s a challenge.

“Two and a half minutes of a lot going on. And there’s little margin for error,” Carlile said.

The last state championship was in February 2020, a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools and everything else. All state competitions were canceled in the 2020-21 school year.

It had been almost a year since the cheer team had been on the floor when they started meeting for practice last summer. The team was smaller than normal — Persichini said the team includes 31 girls and four boys, when normally the cheer squad attracts about 50 people.

“Covid impacted us, definitely,” Perschini said.

In the meantime, the classes of 2020 and 2021 had graduated. Carlile said the group that assembled had a lot of underclassmen and not as much experience.

The team started working on the routine in November, which didn’t leave a lot of time to get it down. And like all athletic teams this school year, the cheerleaders had to work around the coronavirus pandemic. Carlile said it was impossible to practice as a team from Christmas to the day before the competition.

Carlile and assistant coach Toby Black wrote the routine. She said a successful routine starts with knowing the team’s strengths, emphasizing those and going for the most difficulty the team can do safely. Mental preparation is crucial, she said.

“The key is to be consistent. And you really can’t make mistakes,” Carlile said.

Getting that consistency requires a blend of different ingredients.

“I have to say teamwork, for sure,” Haring said. “A lot of the stunts, you can’t do them without other people.”

“A lot of patience,” Persichini said.

“And a lot of precision,” Nunez said. “Because you have to be in the right spot at the right time, or you can mess up the entire routine.”

“This has taken months of preparation,” Persichini said.

The team worked on its state routines four to 10 hours per week.

“And while we’re doing these practices we’re also cheering at games, supporting our school,” Nunez said.

Carlile said it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that cheerleading is supposed to be fun, and the cheerleaders agreed that it is fun.

“Very much,” Haring said.

“We’re all working for the same thing; we all want to come out on top at the end. And the pressure motivates us, for sure,” Nunez said.

“Hearing our name, though, makes it all worth it,” Eccles said.

“Especially when we heard it both times,” Nunez said.

“I’ve never felt so paid off in my life,” Haring said. “I’ve never played a sport and won state.”

It’s intense, Eccles said, but the team has formed strong bonds.

“I’ve definitely made a lot of new friends,” she said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.