Polson cheer squad steps up to national stage
The Polson High School competitive cheer team is competing in the USA Spirit Nationals Cheer Competition this spring. (Courtesy of Amanda Clement)
The Polson cheerleading squad performs during halftime of a Pirates game at the Class A state tournament in Great Falls. (Courtesy of Bob Gunderson)
The Polson High School competitive cheer team. Front row, from left: Maisie Murphy, Shalayne Ostler, Taylor Collinge, Lauren Collinge, Rylie Dupuis, Chloe Mattand Hailey Stocking; back Row: Xavier Pierre, Madison Straub, Kendall Straub, Abi Bennett and Josh Simmons. (Courtesy of Amanda Clement)
While state tournaments usually signify the end of a high school sports season, there’s one team at Polson High School that’s looking to go a step beyond.
The Pirates’ competitive cheer team recently traveled to basketball divisionals in Butte and the state tournament at Great Falls, where they wowed the crowd with feats of strength, balance and aerial mastery.
Turns out Polson has one of the best cheer squads in the region, and a first-place finish at its first-ever USA Spirit Cheer Competition to prove it.
The team, coached by Providence St. Joseph clinic manager Amanda Clement, recently placed first at the regional competition and advanced to the national competition taking place this spring.
“I have a group of cheerleaders who work really hard, and once in a while you come across a team that is special,” Clement said Monday.
Clement was a cheerleader growing up in Chico, Calif., and she’s coached cheerleading since she was a teen.
“When I was 14 I started coaching a youth competition program,” Clement said. “When I was 20, I took over for about 10 years.”
Her interest in the competitive side of the sport really ramped up when her daughter, Alexia Biederman, started competing with a squad that won nationals in 2017.
“The competition was in Anaheim,” Clement said. “So we got to make the trip there to compete, and it was a really big deal.”
After the 2017 season, she moved to the Polson area and has coached the Pirates cheerleaders for several years now. Her daughter helps coach the team as well. But competing in the USA Spirit competition seemed like a lofty goal, considering all the travel expenses and time commitment.
That is, until the COVID-19 pandemic made just about every event in our lives a virtual event.
USA Spirit announced that teams would film their routines this year, so no travel was required.
“We didn’t decide to do this until January,” Clement said. “We’ve been working extremely hard since then to get the skills needed to compete at that level.”
And compete they did. A score of 70 from the judges is required to advance beyond the regional event. The Polson team, competing at the event for the first time ever, scored an 82. They were the only Montana team to compete in a field that included mostly West Coast squads.
“And that is a testament to what a great group of athletes we have here,” Clement said. “They have proved to me over and over what an amazing group of athletes they are.”
The team learned about their score in mid-February. And they’ve already filmed their routine for the national event, the USA Spirit Nationals Cheer Competition.
They’ll learn their scores from that routine April 30 to May 2. Once scores are announced, video of the Polson performance will be posted on the team’s Facebook page and at varsity.com.
Though the competition didn’t require travel, it wasn’t free either. The team has established a GoFundMe page (Polson High School Cheer Team, Nationals) where people can chip in to help pay for the entry fee.
