Chargers Competition Cheer Hosts Its First Invitational

Chargers Competition Cheer Hosts Its First Invitational

By Danny Cardwell · Allegheny Mountain Radio

Most competition cheer teams carry 20 or 30 athletes. Bath County High School carries eight.

There are no alternates. This season the Chargers have been to four competitions and come home with three trophies: two first-place finishes and a third. This Saturday, they’ll do something no Bath County team has done before. They’ll host a competition of their own.

Allyson Watkins, who coaches the team alongside Hayley Shaver, stopped by the WCHG studio ahead of the Chargers’ first-ever Competition Cheer Invitational. I wanted to know how a program this small got this good this fast.

The answer starts on the other side of the mountain. Allyson grew up in Alleghany County and started dancing when she was in about first grade.

“I loved everything about it,” she said. “I loved the performance and the competitions and the friends that you make while you’re doing it.”

In high school, a lot of the girls she danced with also did competition cheer, so she tried it.

“I fell in love with it,” she said.

She kept going and cheered at Concord University until an injury cut her college career short. About five years ago she moved to Bath County. The high school needed a new cheer coach, and Allyson wanted to coach. Hayley joined her about a year and a half later.

The results came quickly. Last season was only the program’s second year of competition. The Chargers finished sixth out of ten teams at the VHSL combined 1A/2A regional, with the highest score among the 1A teams. Kennedy became the first BCHS competition cheerleader to earn All-State honors.

“It’s pretty crazy to think of how much we grew in just one year,” Allyson said. “And I just have to give all of the credit to the girls.”

She kept coming back to the girls.

“All eight of these girls get along so well,” she said. “Every single one of them wants it just as bad as everybody else. They come to practice ready to work, ready to go.”

The coaching side is a partnership, and Allyson described it as two very different coaches who fit together. The two of them decide what they want the routine to look and feel like, including the theme. This year they brought in an outside choreographer to help build it. From there, they each watch for different things.

“I sit back and look at the bigger picture of the routine, and where we could get more points, what we need to change,” Allyson said. “And she is really good at the small details. She’s really good at finding the smaller details within the routine of what we need to fix. We just work extremely well together.”

On Saturday, the Chargers will compete first. Going first comes with pressure, Allyson admitted, but the girls have come around to it.

“I think the girls are very nervous to go first, but I think they kind of prefer that,” she said. “You kind of get to set the impression for the judges and all of the other teams that are there. And you also just get to get it over with and get it out of the way, and then enjoy the rest of the afternoon.”

I’ve been blessed to make covering sports part of my beat. One thing I’ve always loved about girls’ sports is the way teams celebrate in sync. Anyone who has been to a volleyball or softball game knows what I mean. I asked Allyson if that carries over to cheer. She said it’s her favorite part.

“If you’ve never been to a cheer competition, you don’t really know what it’s like, because a lot of people just assume it’s that stereotypical — that cheerleaders are mean girls,” she said. “The atmosphere of a competition is probably one of the most positive things I’ve ever experienced. When teams are not performing, they’re out there cheering for all of the other teams. When they call the trophies out at the end of the competition, everyone is cheering for one another.”

The goal this season is a top-four finish at regionals, which would send the Chargers to the second round with a real shot at states. Allyson’s plan for getting there is simple. Stay on the path, and have fun.

“The more fun they have, the more energy that they’re showing, and the more the judges are enjoying their performance,” she said. “They’ve got the routine. They just need to go in with complete confidence that they can do it, because we completely believe in them. And we know that they could go to states this year.”

She’d like Bath County to see it for itself.

“It’s such a fun, high-energy, positive experience,” she said. “I would just love for everybody in Bath County to just come out and get to experience it one time and see what it’s like. I think that people would absolutely love it.”

The first-ever Bath County Competition Cheer Invitational is this Saturday, October 17, at Bath County High School. Five teams will compete. Doors open at 11 a.m., the competition starts at noon, and the Chargers take the floor first.

If you’re looking for a reason to make a whole day of it, you won’t have to go far. That same evening, Allegheny Mountain Radio’s Gospel Jubilee fundraiser comes to the Bath County High School Auditorium. Doors open at 5 p.m., and the music runs from 6 to 9 with New Standard, Sunday Drive, and Richard and Karen Hise with their daughter Jenna Newmarker. Admission is a free-will offering.

Cheer in the afternoon, gospel in the evening. It’s a full day of action at Bath County High School, and this community will get to cheer for its own twice.