The Liberty Varsity Belles closed out another excellent season with their second state championship win on Saturday, Feb. 23. After placing first in both lyrical jazz and pom, the Belles landed a first place overall win out of 14 teams in division 4.

“We knew that we had a chance at it so whenever it actually happened, it didn’t feel real,” freshman Bella Bahr said.

The student body celebrated both clapping out the Belles for good luck on Friday afternoon before the event at the St. Charles Family Arena and clapped in the Belles and their victory on Monday morning.

“It feels so good because we’ve been working for this moment, basically most of us have been training since we were three. And to know all of this is paying off since we start dancing as a team together in April and we dance together all season, we do football, basketball, we compete and we just grow so close and we set these goals together and to have them accomplished, especially on our last time dancing together is such a rewarding feeling,” Maetten said.

And it’s not only the Belles’ championship win that deserves the recognition as the team has been scoring wins since the beginning of the season, placing within the top two in nearly every competition this season.

“I’m proud of everyone because we went through some really hard times and I think especially we never made an excuse that we were a smaller team even though we were going up against teams with 20 people and we still came out on top,” sophomore Avery Thomas said. “And I just think that’s amazing how we stuck through all of the hard times and being against these amazing teams that have won so many awards in the past and we came out and did our best. We showed everyone that we belong up top.”

But above all, the Liberty Belles proved to teams from all across Missouri on Saturday that Belles keep going.