By Fancy Robbins
After our very own Delta cheerleaders won the State Championship in November 2021, they are finally back on the mat for the new season.
Mrs. Lynde Bratton has been the varsity cheerleading head coach for five years. Throughout her seasons of coaching, 2021 was the first year she won state with the team.
“After winning state last season, I feel like the girls have a lot of unnecessary pressure on them and they want to repeat so bad,” Bratton said. “Sometimes I think they are making it harder on themselves.”
Even though 2021 was the first time they were number 1, the cheerleading team has placed high in state competitions for the last five seasons. In 2017 and 2020 the cheerleaders were third in the state. In 2018 and 2019, they were the state runners-up.
“Since winning state last year, we now have a large target on our back and need to work even harder to prove to the teams that we can come out on top again,” junior cheerleader Carly Howard said.
The varsity cheer team had their first competition of the season on Saturday, Sept. 24.
They came in third place out of eight schools in the Hoosier Heritage Conference cheer competition.
The cheerleaders competed again Saturday, Sept. 30 at Pendleton Heights High School, and they placed third.
“Losing three seniors has definitely been a big loss, but we’ve had some people step up in certain situations to fill those roles,” Bratton said.
Sophomore Lindsey Lynch, who is one of the main flyers, also just came off a sprained ankle right before the competitions started.
“It’s been harder coming back because you want everything to be perfect right away but obviously it doesn’t work like that,” Lynch said. “You have to work way harder to get back to how you were and even better.”
