The varsity cheer team will be battling on screens in thousands of American homes, and possibly even in front of millions on live television through ESPN U and ESPN2 starting in late March if they continue far enough into the finals. The rounds this weekend can be watched live online for a fee.

“We’re competing against different schools, and when you reach certain parts of the competition, it’s on Twitter, it’s on Facebook, it’s all over social media,” Mary Jo Clancy, varsity cheerleader, said. “The name Eureka will be all over the place.”

This past year has been an exhilarating time for national and state competitions within the school.

Recently, Golden Line competed in nationals and placed fourteenth in the nation for Jazz and fifteenth for Pom. Other activities, like swimming, robotics, cross country and wrestlers including Clayton Wegener, Alec Hagan and Kyran Hagan, fought all the way to state.

Now, it’s cheer’s time to shine.

The cheer team is traveling to Disney World this week to compete in the UCA National High School Cheerleading Championships. If the squad places high enough the preliminary round, they will continue in the competition.

We are going to continue with the idea that we are going to continue to work hard and better our placement,” Ms. Amanda Halbert, varsity cheer head coach, said. “We are providing for life lessons and the effects of hard work.”

The road to nationals has not only been physically demanding but also time consuming. Working day in and day out, the girls are happy to have made it this far.

“Preparation this year has been really intense,” Cathryn Jones, varsity cheerleader, said. “Usually we do two hour practices at a time. We usually practice Monday thru Thursday. I take a lot of high level classes, like AP Euro and Honors classes, so I’ve never really been this busy before.”

But in the end, all of the hard work pays off.

“It’s been pretty good this year,” Clancy said. “I think we’ve like aquired a lot more skills this year than we have in the past few years.”

Last year EHS placed sixteenth in the preliminary round for the UCA competition. This year they aim to at least make it to the semifinals.

The fact that cheer qualified for nationals is an exciting accolade, but if they continue it will be a major accomplishment for the team. The first time cheer went to nationals was only last year.

“I feel like we’ll do really good because we’ve worked so hard,” Hay said. “I have faith in us, and it will be fun.”

Follow the Hub on Twitter @EHS_hub for competition results.