State Cheer Competition set for next Weekend

1/28/2022

(Battle Ground, WA) The State Cheer competition is back this year at Battle Ground High School. The last time this event was held was in February of 2020 just before all the Covid shutdowns. At that event more than 96 teams participated in 4 different categories with several different divisions within those categories. Many schools have teams that perform separately in the different categories.

In the past the competition was held over 2 days with some teams staying the night to perform on both Friday and Saturday. The State Cheer competition would also showcase a college Cheer squad at the event and finish it off with a Parade of Champions and award ceremony that featured loud music, lights off and plenty of colorful and fun costumes from all the teams participating.

There will be changes this year due to the health restrictions in place regarding Covid. First of all there will not be the Parade of Champions and no team will compete on both days.

The competition will begin on Friday, February 4. At 4pm teams will be allowed into the facility at Battle Ground. At 5pm the doors open to the public and at 6pm the competition will begin. Teams that are participating only in 1 category will all go on Friday.

That will not be the case this year. Each team will compete in whichever category and at whichever level on Friday night but the competition will continue on Saturday and all the categories and divisions will be completed on Saturday.

Teams that are scheduled for Saturday have squads that are competing in more than 1 category. Teams will be allowed into the facility at 10am, the doors open to the public at 11am and competition begins at noon. It is expected that all competition will be concluded around 6pm.

At that time the facility will be cleared and again there will not be a Parade of Champions. At about 7pm the WIAA will do the awards ceremony live on the NFHS stream. The awards ceremony will be offered free of charge from the normal subscription cost of subscribing to the NFHS. The announcements will be made during this broadcast without an audience. The broadcast will also be recorded and available free of charge.

These changes were made to comply with the Clark County Health Department policies with the first priority of allowing the competition to go forward and then allowing as many people to attend as possible. Masks will be required for all fans. Concessions will be sold but eating and drinking will not be allowed in the gym where the competition is being held.

WIAA Executive Director Mick Hoffman says he understands the frustration of not being completely “back to normal” but these rules are out of the hands of the WIAA and schools and for the competition to be held these are the things that will allow it too happen. Hoffman says the first priority of the WIAA are the student athletes opportunity to compete. Everything else comes next. Hoffman hopes people can keep their own personal thoughts and politics to themselves for a few hours to allow the kids their chance to compete in their crowning events. Hoffman also had high praise for all of the health departments they are working with, he says, each have worked to help us make sure we can get these events on and without their help it simply wouldn’t have worked.