Lakewood Ranch cheerleaders stick landing at national championship

Although the Lakewood Ranch Gold Rush cheerleading team has only been together for one season, the team earned a national championship.

The Gold Rush, which consists of 20 East County children (all girls except for one boy) ranging from 8 to 14 years old, has been practicing and competing together since its season started last May. 

The team formed after the Lakewood Ranch Cheerleading business opened its doors in December 2018. 

At Cheersport Nationals Feb. 15 and Feb. 16 in Atlanta, Georgia, Gold Rush was shocked that it placed first.

“We're very diverse,” said Maya Leichter, one of the cheerleaders. “Every one of us comes from different teams, different gyms. We all just kind of met each other, so it was very rare for a team like us to all of a sudden win Cheersport.”

Gold Rush coach Terri Abasial said the competition in Georgia is one of the biggest in the country with more than 20,000 athletes competing at various levels and age groups. 

The Gold Rush was in the junior level two division, going up against 11 other teams from across the country. 

At the end of the first day of competition Feb. 15, Gold Rush stood in second place.

“Then on the second day, we came out and hit just a beautiful routine, and it was enough to put us in first,” Abasial said. 

Having participated in four events this season, the national championship was the first competition the Gold Rush has won.

“We didn’t really think we could win, and now that we’ve kind of surpassed so many goals in one day, we have to live up to them,” Leichter said. 

The team is working hard to make changes to boost its scores at The Summit competition, which coach Rick Abasial said is “like the Super Bowl of cheerleading.” 

“We’ve added some things since Cheersport just to try to boost their routine as much as possible before we go to Summit,” said Kaili Fuller, one of the coaches. “We’re just doing everything we can to get our score as high as possible to hopefully achieve that paid bid and then go to Summit and score high enough to make finals.”

The road to nationals and the Summit, which is May 1-4 at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Orlando, wasn’t always easy with a new team as cheerleaders came from different gyms or were even new to the sport altogether. 

“They started like the bottom of the bottom, and those were kids that we were trying to all get on the same page,” Fuller said. ”A lot of them had never competed at this level before, so to kind of take them from all different backgrounds and put them together and be able to put something so great together that would win something so big is the biggest thing.”

Charli Waldrip, one of the cheerleaders, came from six years of gymnastics before switching to cheerleading. Getting to know her teammates has been easy for her as everyone’s been welcoming, she said.

“I’m having to start trusting people because in gymnastics if you were separate you don’t have to rely on anybody,” Waldrip said. “Now that I’m stunting, doing a pyramid and stunting two inches away from somebody I have to start relying on people. It was pretty hard for me because I like to rely on myself.”

To help bring the team together, parents have coordinated team bonding events such as building gingerbread men and making signs.