Owasso Cheer: national champions
By Reagan Rozzi
Owasso High School’s All-Girl and Co-Ed cheer teams are far from your average sideline performers. After their securing of the national championship title, trophy and signature white jackets, both teams are still coming down from their epic adrenaline high.
Photo of National Champions jackets taken by Reagan Rozzi
When spending the week in Orlando, Florida at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, both teams had a cutthroat and rigorous schedule. Each group was granted only two rehearsals to perfect their routine: one in the Top Gun All Stars gym and one on the complex’s football field—during which the competing teams practiced in front of each other and gave a preview of their skills before the judge’s viewing.
But to get here, the OHS cheer teams had to first practice immensely; both teams rehearsed from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, starting this rigorous schedule from the beginning of December to the end of January. In the final weeks leading up to the final competition, they also added three-hour long Saturday practices. Although Co-Ed and All-Girl performed two different routines, they followed the same schedule and worked in the gym simultaneously. What could’ve been seen as a potential distraction actually served as a method of tightly knitting the teams together.
Senior Malainah Bushong has been on the OHS Varsity Cheer team for all four years of her high school career, with three of those years spent on the 15-member All-Girl competitive team. She explained the importance of collective rehearsals.
“It helps with morale of practice, like helping each other … cheering each other on,” Bushong shared.
A team cannot be successful without an unbreakable bond, which is what both teams strived to build throughout the school year.
“Through the beginning of the year there’s lots of team bondings,” Bushong shared. “We do movie nights, pool parties and stuff like that. Closer to nationals, that’s more just practices.”
Junior Mckenna Parish of the 30-member Co-Ed team also discussed the weekly team dinners, but primarily stressed the relationships built on the clock, saying, “I would say we’re all pretty close. That definitely showed on the trip to all of us, like, there wasn’t a divide … the gym, being there, obviously, six hours a day is like bonding and you get to know everyone.”
With a close-knit friendship, they set themselves up for an indescribably successful 2024-25 season. The competition journey began with the regional competition, where teams can choose to compete either virtually or in-person. OHS chose the former, and both teams placed first in their divisions, successfully qualifying for nationals.
Both groups then had their eyes on the prize: securing the national title of UCA Champions. The competition week, which took place in early February, consisted of highs and lows for the athletes. Despite point deductions during preliminaries due to safety violations and stunt techniques to internet virality for their notably difficult routine, the groups still kept each other in balance for a collective win.
“[We were] happy for each other’s successes. If one team wouldn’t necessarily do the best one day, then the other team was always helping them pick it back up. … We try to take it one thing at a time,” Bushong recalled.
The day of the finals round, heartbeats were fast and breathing was heavy; the pressure was on. Teams were lined in chronological order in the infamous backstage area known as “the tunnel.” All that encumbered them was a seemingly never-ending hallway, ridden with dim lighting and ominous blackout curtains.
Parish remembered, “During that moment we all just try and communicate and talk and remind everyone that it’s gonna be okay, [and make sure] everybody [stays] checked in.”
But contrary to the high tension, Parish and the teams believe they were two of the best routines Owasso Cheer has ever performed. With only minor deductions, the team felt confident going into the awards ceremony.
“The entire arena was full … of parents and just people coming to watch. … “It was just so many hugs and smiles and tears and cheers. … We took so many pictures, non-stop smiling, all the parents were crying, all of us were crying,” Bushong remembered.
Parish added, “They finally called our name for first [place], and it was just, like, the biggest weight lifted off our shoulders. … It made all the hours in the gym worth it. It was the best feeling ever.”
Picture of Co-Ed and All-Girl teams taken by Reagan Rozzi
Now, once the team has readjusted to their new lives as national champions, it’ll be time to begin preparing next year’s routine for a possible second consecutive win. Congratulations to both teams!