Community last qualified for State in 2021, when the contest was held virtually. The team’s last in-person trip to State came in 2019 when the team finished 24th. Photo Courtesy of: HR Imaging

The competitive cheer team took second in the Big 12 Conference competition Wednesday, Jan. 17, finishing behind Normal West.  The finish marked an improvement over 2023’s conference results, an indication that the team’s dedication and determination is paying off.  

Last season, the team took third in the conference trailing West and Peoria High. Ahead of this year’s competition, coach Ms. Heather Gotschall said she believed the team was capable of more.

As gym space grows scarce during basketball season—confining wrestlers to the cafeteria, cheerleaders to the hallway and dancers to a room that can’t contain their routines—the cheer team has shown exactly what “more” means. 

More dedication. More commitment. More time. 

Competitive cheer means more than attending in-school practice or supporting another sport on the sidelines. 

It’s nights supporting each other at local training facilities like Technique, Tumble & Cheer Prep and Gymnastics Etc., Gotschall said—nights allowing the athletes to improve their individual tumbling skills. 

But as they work to perfect tumbling skills at their own rates, the team aspect remains in the foreground. The 20-member team only receives credit for a skill if at least 11 members execute it in competition—holding team members accountable to each other. 

Every time the carpool leaves for a weekly tumbling class or open gym, Hannah Hafner (’24) and fellow cheer members know they are working for more than just themselves. 

“We have to collectively decide that we want to put in more effort,” Hafner said, “and go outside of practice to the open gyms so we can become better.” 

Picking up team members for extra tumbling practice lets cheerleaders maximize at-school practice time for group stunts—and strengthens the bonds required to literally pick each other up. 

Stunts are consistently the most challenging element of the Iron’s routines, Gotschall said, as they require a unique level of trust. 

As the base of a cheer stunt, missing a catch means dropping the ball in a much graver sense than a basketball player or football wide receiver knows—it means severe injury to the teammate who has just been cast 20 feet in the air. 

But thanks to that outside-of-school practice time and the cheer season’s unique longevity—most athletes are involved in summer contact days and an entire football cheer season before their own competitive season starts—Hafner and the team have grown close.

“You spend an entire year with someone, almost practicing every single day,” Hafner said. “Everyone knows the pain that you’re in because you are all going through the same stuff.”

And that pain hasn’t gone without reward this year. 

The team placed first at Jan. 13’s West Invite after earning second at both the Farmington Invite and the Boilermaker Cheer Competition in December—placements that Hafner took pride in, considering the other squads’ talent.  

“These teams are teams that we’ve watched and were like, ‘Oh my God,’” Hafner said. “It’s cool to get second against these hard teams.” 

But because there are few large co-ed teams like Community’s in the area, Gotschall isn’t focused on the number—first or second—on an award plaque. It’s the number on judges’ score sheets that has her attention.

“Even if there’s only a few teams in our division,” Gotshall said, “we keep increasing our scores.” 

With enough incremental increases, Community could do more than take home trophies in the regular season—they could have a shot in the IHSA postseason. 

While no members of the current team have competed at an in-person IHSA State—the team last qualified in 2021, when the contest was held virtually—Community cheerleaders volunteer at the IHSA Dance and Cheer State competitions on back-to-back weekends every year. 

For Hafner, watching teams perform under the spotlights of Grossinger Motors Arena is more than just another comp weekend in a high school gym.

“It’s a different excitement,” Hafner said, “when you can’t see the crowd or anything and you just have the spotlights on you. It’s a different level of ‘Oh my God, we’re here.’”

Although placing in the top five at Jan. 27’s Mount Vernon Sectional and advancing to State would mark a triumphant end to her six seniors’ cheer careers, Gotschall said, the process itself has been rewarding no matter the result. 

After switching from JV to varsity coach two years ago, Gotschall has had the unique opportunity to work with some of this year’s seniors for their full high school careers—four years spent forging meaningful connections. 

“I want them to make it to State,” Gotschall said, “but even if they don’t, those bonds and relationships that they all have are definitely something to look back on.”