On Saturday, Jan. 30, Liberty’s varsity cheerleaders sat in a classroom, avidly awaiting the results of their most recent competition. To the entire team’s delight, their hard work had paid off. The team had won the STL regional championship, advancing them to the state competition in the coming weeks.

Not only has the varsity cheer team won regionals before, but this is the third consecutive year in which Liberty has won regionals; a “threepeat.”

“It really shows how amazing this program is and now we hope to take first at state,” sophomore Janet Musangali said.  

As a sophomore, this is Musangali’s first year on varsity after cheering on the freshman team last year. She is one of six sophomores, and explained that it isn’t as scary as it seems. 

“It’s so great to be a part of such an amazing team,” Musangali said. 

Senior Megan Coyle has been lucky enough to be on the cheerleading team three years in a row and she admitted that regionals were very stressful this year. 

The coach of the team, Mrs. Sansoucie, agreed that this year the team had to “overcome many obstacles,” especially with people being “out left and right” because of quarantines. The team, because of COVID-19, had to record and submit their routine. But it all came in good spirits because they could record over a period of multiple days. 

According to Sansoucie, “Cheer really just depends on good days and bad days.”

With regionals behind the cheerleader’s backs, they are moving on to state in two weeks, and are working harder than ever before. 

Essentially, state is ramped up regionals, where they hype up their routine with a variety of new tumbling and stunts. But just like regionals, state will be virtual once again. 

“This is definitely the most confident team I have had, and they are just super positive,” Sansoucie said. 

All in all, Liberty and Sansoucie are proud of the girls for pushing through to the amazing end result. 

“It’s a great accomplishment and well deserved; we have worked so hard to get to where we are today and it’s amazing to have this kind of validation,” Coyle said.