Copperas Cove High Cheerleaders make top 25 at state UIL championships

Special to the Leader-Press 

Gold letters flashed up spelling C-O-V-E. Blue and gold pom-poms shook, and flags spelling D-A-W-G-S waved in the background. The voices of the Copperas Cove High School cheerleaders could be heard throughout the arena as they left nothing on the mat, giving their all in the UIL Spirit State Championships. The team placed in the top 25 in the state under the direction of teachers Chandler Diaz and Josephina Bailey who respectively coach the varsity and junior varsity squads. 
Diaz said the UIL Spirit State Championships focus more on the traditional Game Day aspect of cheerleading. Schools compete in three categories including band dance, crowd leading, and fight song.
“This year, we started our transition into a competitive Game Day cheer program. Copperas Cove High School cheer has had more of All-Star cheer type performances in years past. This was the case whenever I was a cheerleader for CCHS,” Diaz said. “When I graduated and went Tarleton State University for cheer, I attended my first collegiate cheer camp and I fell in love with Game Day. When I returned to Copperas Cove High School as the head cheer coach, I already decided that was the direction I wanted to lead the program.”
Diaz recruited fellow TSU Cheer Alumni Victoria Butler to help prepare the CCHS program to return to UIL. 
“Trying to create the perfect combination of every aspect of cheerleading that the judges want to see, she choreographed a routine to help set us up for success,” Diaz said. “We had so many setbacks as a team with COVID and injuries, but everyone pulled together in the end.”
Cheer captain and senior Allyssa Kimball was especially excited that the team was competing in the UIL championships after a five-year absence.  
“We had worked so hard on this routine all year, and there were so much sweat and tears put into our season,” said Kimball who was named an All-American Cheerleader both her junior and senior years. “I can say that in my four years at CCHS, I have never come up on the end of a season feeling so proud and accomplished with the outcome. We put out an outstanding routine, placing twenty-fifth out of 60 teams in the 6A DII Division, the highest placement for our team literally in years.”
CCHS Cheer competed the first year that cheerleading was part of the University Interscholastic League in Texas in 2016. They placed 62nd in the 6A division with 89 other teams.
“I can’t explain the feeling of watching these kids that I love like my own, perform so well, and love what they do,” Diaz said. “By the end of our Fight Song, I was in tears. After everything they had been through, they did so good.”