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Cheyenne South cheer continues tradition of state success
The Cheyenne South Bison took first place in the all-girl, co-ed and game day divisions Friday, Jan. 29, 2021 at the WHSAA State Spirit Competition in Casper, Wyo. (Courtesy: Kim Robert)

Cheyenne South cheer continues tradition of state success

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (BVM) Cheyenne South High School is still relatively new, having only been open since the 2010-11 school year. But the school’s cheerleading program, which began competing a year before South officially opened its doors, hasn’t needed much time to establish an impressive tradition of success.

In 2012, just their third year of competition, the Bison surprised everyone including themselves when they wound up taking first place at the state spirit competition in the all-girls division. Nine years later, state championships have become nearly routine for Cheyenne South.

“I think from that point [of winning the first state title] the kids just started believing we can do this,” South head coach Kim Robert said. “From that point on they’ve been very self-driven and self-motivated. They want to continue to represent South well and continue the tradition.”

The Bison continued that tradition Jan. 29 at the WHSAA State Spirit Competition when they took first place in the all-girl, co-ed and game day divisions to run their total number of state championships to 14, including four consecutive in both all-girl and co-ed.

Considering the circumstances surrounding this particular championship season, the three new first-place trophies might end up being the program’s most cherished of all. South didn’t even know for sure until mid-November when its state competition would be held. Normally it takes place in March, but scheduling issues brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic forced the WHSAA to move it up to the end of January.

“At that point in time [in November] it was like, ‘OK here we go, full throttle forward,’” Robert said. “We started practicing five and six days a week because we had three routines to get together. We usually don’t practice that hard, that quick. And on top of not having the spring season, not having summer camp and conditioning, I think it was just really hard on the kids.”

To make matters even more challenging, the Bison had to overcome several injuries in the weeks leading up to the state meet, two of which were season-ending, and another athlete had to be quarantined due to Covid-19 contact tracing the Monday prior to the meet.

“If we had gone through the same hardships that we went through this year, last year, I’m not sure last year’s team would’ve pulled it off but this year’s team,” Robert said. “Just their heart and their work ethic and their determination was just amazing.”

Forced to adapt, first to a much more demanding schedule and then the absences of key teammates at a critical time, the Bison managed to stay the course. And in the end, the result was much the same as has come to be expected from a program with a tradition of success at the state level.

“What really stood out to me was once we got up to state and we warmed up and we sat down as a team, yeah there were some nerves, but it was very calm, very focused,” Robert said. “They didn’t worry about other teams, what they were doing or they weren’t doing, they just went out and did what they needed to do. They knew all we could do was our routine and let the chips fall where they may.”