MARYSVILLE — It’s hard to meet goals when you keep exceeding them — but what a luxury it is.
The Marysville-Pilchuck cheer squad placed fourth at the state cheerleading championships at the Comcast Arena Jan. 23, which is just one spot away from third place and their goal of earning a trophy.
That’s not bad for a team that didn’t know it was competing until two months ago.
“We always wanted to compete, but we really weren’t good enough,” said cheer co-captain Kaylena Brevick, a senior, about her previous two years in cheer.
In fact, this is the first year the Tomahawks have cheered competitively. Up until just a few months ago, this was a recreational activity for students with an excess of school spirit.
It wasn’t until the bus ride home from the M-P’s first-round state loss to Auburn did the idea cross the squad’s minds.
“I said we’ll try it and see how it goes,” said coach Gayle Goudsward, who is also on staff at Kellogg Marsh Elementary.
The result speaks for itself. In just a couple of months the Tomahawks have transformed themselves into a medium-sized varsity force. They proved as much in a local qualifying event Jan. 16 by winning it, and blowing away the competition, which included four other teams going to state.
“We had coaches come up to us who had been doing this for years, saying ‘Where have you been?’” she said.
They have been on the sideline of Tomahawk events, only recently, however did they decide to increase their level of commitment and cheer roughly 10 hours a week, which is split between games and practicing stunts, tumbling and their routine.
A couple of cheerleaders on the squad had extensive, competitive experience. Senior Autumn Niemi (12 years experience) and sophomore Ashley Tande (nine years), who competed in All-Star cheer, helped speed up the learning curve.
“This is our thing and we thought we could show them what we know,” said Tande.
Niemi added, “And it’s been so much fun to see them learn.”
The two created the routine that has gotten the Tomahawks to state in just a few hours — and they did it before M-P even thought about cheering competitively.
“It was just something we did for fun,” Niemi said.
Having fun was a goal they had all year, until last week when they just wanted to make the state competition.
