TITLE TOWN

At this rate, they’re not going to need to clear out more room in the trophy case for Cashion cheer.

They’re going to have to build a whole new one.

Cashion pulled off the impressive dou- ble-dip last weekend when it was announced as the Class 2A Game Day cheer state champion at Moore High School.

“It still doesn’t seem real,” said Amber Hobgood, who coaches the team along with Casi Williams.

But it is real and is something the team has been building toward - and so close to winning - since Game Day competitions began in 2017.

••• This isn’t the first cheerleading championship for Cashion, but it’s still new to the program.

The first came just weeks ago when the same group won the Class 2A competitive cheer title in Tulsa.

On that magical day, Cashion was also announced as the academic state champion as well.

Fast forward to last Saturday and…just before the finalists were named, it was announced that Cashion was once again the academic state champion.

The team earned it with a 3.85 cumulative GPA.

“There were 46 other schools who competed beginning with the regionals, so for us to win the academic award was pretty incredible,” Hobgood said.

But it wasn’t the only one the team wanted.

The question was: Would they get the chance?

Fifteen teams competed at the state competition and performed a three-minute routine in the preliminary round.

Categories judged are fight song, crowd leading and band dance to arrive at an overall score.

The top-six teams advance from the preliminar- ies and perform again in the finals. Not feeling great about the first performance of the day, Cashion learned it was among the six finalists. “We knew we didn’t perform our best in the prelims, so we were excited to hear our name called as one of the six going into the finals,” Hobgood said. Williams composed the team members and gathered all the signs and props for the team to head to warm up for its finals performance. Hobgood went to the coaches’ meeting where she was able to attain the prelims scores as well as judges’ notes. The scores revealed Cashion and Dibble were tied for first with 618.6 points. “Our squad flipped a switch and they all knew then that we had a shot at winning this,” Hobgood said. The bad news was in the drawing for performance order, Hobgood drew No. 1, which she felt was unlucky. “Or so I thought at the time,” she said. Hobgood returned to the warm-up area where the team went through the routine one more time. “We made a few quick adjustments and warmed up. Everything - almost - hit perfectly,” she said. The team made its way back to the performance area. “It just felt different,” Hobgood said. Of course, Cashion had been in this spot before. The team was the Game Day state runner-up last year and also in 2018 and 2019. Cashion was third in 2021 and fourth in 2017 and 2020. “We have been so close to winning this competition several times,” Hobgood said. “We were in almost the same position last year, but it just felt different this year.”

Then came the final routine.

“They got on the mat and the energy they brought was unbelievable,” Hobgood said.

Crowd leading is half of the score in the finals and Hobgood said the crowd delivered as well.

“Our fans could feel it and our fans showed up!” she exclaimed.

The other five finalists then completed their routines, setting up the announcement for the winners.

Third place: Turpin.

State runner-up: Haworth.

“We knew it was between us and Dibble,” Hobgood said. “I just knew Dibble performed great and they were going to be tough to beat.”

2023 Class 2A state champion: Cashion!

“Wow!” said Hobgood. “Words can’t describe it.”

Cashion was awarded 265 points for its finals performance.

Haworth earned 264.4 and Turpin 259.0. Dibble had slipped to fourth with 255.4 points.

The feelings were surpassed perhaps only by the enormity of the feat.

The turnaround from competitive cheer to Game Day is brief.

Cashion won in Tulsa on Sept. 23.

“We gave the girls one Sunday practice off and then we started back at it working hard,” Hobgood said.

The team once again choreographed its own Game Day routine with help from Williams and Hobgood.

“But it didn’t actually come together until the week of regionals and even the week of state, we were still making changes,” Hobgood said.

The day prior to state, Cashion’s football team played at Dibble.

“Coming home late from the football game the night before and having an early morning to meet and get ready for the competition is always a little stressful,” Hobgood said.

There was something that added to the stress.

“We realized we were out of our face tattoos we normally wear,” she said.

Game Day competitions include extra performers, most of which are used for displaying props like school flags.

Among those Cashion “flag boys” in years past was Brexten Green, who tragically passed away in an accident in July of last year.

In the absence of the regular face tattoos, the cheerleaders had another option.

“We decided to wear the tattoos we had made to honor Brexten previously,” Hobgood said. “I really think he was watching over us that day.”

Whatever it was, it worked as Cashion erased years of near-misses to win its second cheer state championship in less than two months.

“These seniors have known what it feels like to lose by a small margin and I don’t think they wanted to feel that way again,” Hobgood said.

“All these kids were motivated to win another state championship and make history.”