Daviess County, Apollo, and Owensboro high schools along with Burns Middle School cheerleading teams all had their competition seasons come to a close this weekend at nationals. DCHS and BMS earned top-five finishes, while AHS and OHS ended their seasons in the semifinals.
Apollo earned 10th in the traditional routine semifinal and 15th in their gameday semifinal, joining Owensboro in having the trip come to a close in the semifinal round.
Apollo Head Coach Wes Nall is proud of his team and knows that they’ve gained valuable experience.
“We had some issues executing, but overall I’m pleased with our performance,” Nall said. “One-third of our roster had never competed in this environment, and five more had never competed here at the varsity level. We will graduate six athletes, and only three of them are four-year members of the program. We are a young bunch with a very talented group of underclassmen and an incoming freshman class that should help us improve in the future.”
Having built a relationship between the Apollo and Daviess County programs, Nall made sure to tip his cap to the Panthers and their top-five finish, while also congratulating Burns Middle School on theirs as well.
Daviess County High School and Burns Middle School both earned top-five finishes at nationals, Burns Middle School earning fourth and the Panthers grabbing fourth in the Super Varsity Game Day D1 Non-Tumbling division. After earning a state title to qualify for Nationals, Daviess County Head Coach Kitty Jones said the expectation was to get to the finals and then put their hearts out on the mat with no regrets—and she said that her squad did just that.
“We could not have asked for a better closing performance,” Jones said. “Especially after making a few last-minute adjustments based on feedback from judges during semifinals. The score breakdown between second and fourth is shockingly close. We were .1 from third and .4 from second.
Jones and company felt like their performance was icing on the cake for all of the hard work and time that they’ve put into perfecting their routine this season.
“Every member of the team contributed to the success of this season from the alternates on the sidelines to the 13 seniors,” Jones said. “In fact, as we came off the mat from our last performance of the season senior Catilyn Cook thanked her teammates stating, ‘Thank you from the seniors, I couldn’t have asked for more and I am proud of all of you… that was the best ending.’ They went into Nationals as a true team lifting each other up when needed and working together with coaches to piece together the feedback from each day.”
This brings a conclusion to the competition as well, now focusing on cheering on the basketball programs in the district tournament next week. Jones said that they will then celebrate the seniors and their team members at a banquet with the presentation of some new championship rings.
That is one of many impressive moments that the Panthers have had this season and just one of many memories that Jones and company will always be fond of.
“It’s hard to say what my favorite moment of the season was, but I can narrow it down to three moments,” Jones said. “The first being our state title in Large Game Day, getting announced as a finalist at Nationals, and watching the playback backstage after our last performance. The cheering for each other was monumental.”
Looking forward, the Daviess County coaching staff wants to continue to build this program for success in the postseason and develop young athletes. But first Jones wanted to make sure to thank her coaching staff and the support the Panthers received from others throughout the season, saying it’s those people that help make everything possible.
“I personally want to thank the amazing coaching staff I am blessed to work with, Sally Ward and Tracy Gutsche,” Jones said. “They have been instrumental to the development of this program. Sally develops the best routines with her creativity and we all rely on Tracy’s constant guidance. The Daviess Cheer program is blessed to have them both along with great support from our families and friends.”
