Two Lauderdale County high school cheer squads finished in first place this past weekend at the MHSAA state cheer competitions in Jackson.

Northeast Lauderdale High School placed first in the large varsity non-tumble competition for classes 1-6A, while West Lauderdale finished in first place in the 4A small varsity tumble competition.

NORTHEAST LAUDERDALE

Northeast cheer coach Tammie Pirie said her squad competed against 14 other teams with a routine choreographed by East Mississippi Cheer’s Laura Posey, as well as Johnny Taylor and Bradley Pressley. It was the second year in a row for Northeast to win state, something Pirie said was a significant accomplishment.

“We lost four seniors that had cheered together for probably four years, and when tryouts ended, we ended up with eight new girls, including six freshmen that had no competition experience,” Pirie said.

“I was confident, but I knew we had to start over. We worked hard all the way through, sometimes at 5:45 in the morning.”

The hard work included many practices at East Mississippi Cheer’s gymnasium, as well as two practices over the Thanksgiving break and a Universal Cheerleading Association competition the week before state. UCA judges the MHSAA state competitions, allowing her squad to get an idea of what judges would be looking for out of their routine.

“We never really got complacent,” Pirie said. “We just got back to the basics and went through with a completely new stunt group.”

Cheer captain Joelle Youngblood, a senior, said winning back-to-back titles shows Northeast cheer isn’t just a flash in the pan.

“The second time was probably better, because you actually won twice — you didn’t just get lucky the year before,” Youngblood said. “We proved we were actually good.”

Pirie also said it was satisfying to win back to back for that same reason.

“For any of the doubters out there, it proves it wasn’t just a fluke,” she said.

The many hours of hard work paid off for Northeast, and Youngblood said there were times she and others may have wanted to quit, but something kept pushing the team to hang in there.

“We knew we had a chance to win it all again,” Youngblood said. “We wanted to fight and establish what we had the year before. That kept us pushing forward.”

WEST LAUDERDALE

COLLINSVILLE — The headline read, “Always a fighter.”

It was the Oct. 28 edition of The Meridian Star, and a story front and center in the sports section told of West Lauderdale High School assistant football coach Derrick Pouncey’s battle with metastasized melanoma.

Pouncey’s death a few weeks later hit the West Lauderdale community hard, and the school’s cheerleading squad took it upon themselves to honor his memory by fighting through the challenges to win state, the school’s fifth in cheerleading.

“We used that headline as our inspiration,” cheer coach Charlotte Chaney said. “They would be fatigued after practice because it’s such a physical sport, and we’d talk about that. We’d say, ‘We think this is something, but look at what he did.

“We were dedicated in honoring his memory.”

Winning state for Pouncey was a rewarding accomplishment, Chaney said, but not as rewarding as what her girls learned from the experience.

“Getting the state title was what we sought, but what we got out of the process was so much more,” she said. “Physically and emotionally, they were pushed. We encouraged them to be humble and never take a state title for granted. We asked them to focus on the challenge of Coach Pouncey and what others had gone through.”

Like Northeast, West had to replace a group of seniors who contributed heavily to previous squads’ successes.

“Anytime you lose six individuals in a competitive setting, there is a certain amount of regrouping,” Chaney said. “These young ladies knew how dedicated they’d have to be, and they were willing to be dedicated. It’s amazing.

“We knew we’d have to be even more dedicated to practice, instruction and critical commentary, and the girls did as much as was asked of them.”

While working out at East Mississippi Cheer, the West cheerleaders got to mingle with other Lauderdale County squads, as well as teams from Neshoba and Clarke counties. She said the bonding experience taught them an important lesson about supporting fellow cheerleaders from the area.

Posey choreographed West’s routine as well, and Chaney said she wanted to thank assistant cheer coach Sara Freeman for her hand in the team’s success.