You probably have seen York’s cheerleaders supporting our football teams this earlier this fall, but for these girls, the real sport is about to begin: competition season. Last year, the York cheerleading team made a name for themselves, competing in both the ICCA and IHSA levels. The team went to state for the first time in the history by placing fifth at Sectionals. Along with these major achievements, during last year’s regular season the team won three out of their four competitions. In addition, in last years NIU competition, the girls achieved one grand champion title, meaning they not only achieved first in their division, but also first out of all the teams there. This year’s team has a lot to live up to but they are using last season’s accomplishments as this season’s motivation. “This year’s girls know the expectations that we have to live up to and are constantly pushing ourselves to be better than last year,” said Madison Hoffmann, junior. The team has an abu ndance of young talent, having only three seniors. The majority of juniors are inspired by the seniors to work harder for them because it’s their last year. “Do it for the seniors’ is one of our mottos,” said Audrey Sadowicz, junior. Captains Alexis Bojesen and Reilly Leddy lead the squad this season and have big hopes for the fast approaching competition season. “I feel that some of strengths this year are that we all really mesh together well and have a really great talented group of girls that all are striving for the same goal, which is state,” said Bojesen, senior. While team chemistry is high, the girls acknowledge disproportionate amount of seniors and juniors is an obstacle. “A weakness would be that a majority of our team are underclassmen so they don’t have as much experience as the three seniors on this team do,” said Leddy, senior. Despite this, the team has been practicing relentlessly to prepare. “We do a lot of cardio and aerobic workouts at practice to stay in shape, ” said junior Samantha Castillo. With all this hard work, the team looks optimistically forward to another statebound season.