Sectionals week for any sport means it is crunch time. When it is sectionals week for cheerleading things get very intense, sectionals for cheerleading is a very important competition because if the team does not place in the top five, it would end their season.

“During sectionals week, we try to preserve our bodies from being sore by practicing light,” sophomore Rebecca Bargamian said. “Sectionals is probably the biggest competition of the season, so this week we really work on cleaning sections to make sure everything is perfect.”

Practices start to become more and more stressful as the season progresses. It is key to stay positive and aware so that people are being safe and not getting hurt. It is also very important for an athlete to take care of their body during this week, this includes: drinking lots of water, eating healthy and not pushing oneself past the breaking point.

“My anxiety is at 100, especially if we change the routine to things that we haven’t really competed with,” freshman Jadda Pope said. “It does make me a little sad knowing that this could be our last competition, but we just need to come together and stay focused and believe that we can do it.”

At many competitions things don’t go as planned, for example a stunt might fall, someone might touch down on their tumbling or somebody could even step off of the mat. No one really plans for those things to happen, but when it does you just have to forget about it and keep moving forward.

“I think we will do good [at sectionals], there seems to be a theme on how we perform at an invitational competition, we didn’t do as well as we hoped, but a few days later we bounced back and hit our routine at conference,” Baragmian said. “This past competition at Stagg, we didn’t do as well as we wished to once again, so we are hoping to bounce back at sectionals.”