Woodbury’s East Ridge Takes 14th at National Cheerleading Event

The competition cheer team took 14th place in its division at a national event in Disney World over the weekend.

“They did really well,” coach Cindy Lambert said on the phone from Florida, where the team was relaxing Monday before heading back to Woodbury Tuesday.

Competing against 44 other teams in the largest division, the East Ridge squad performed three times.

“That was really awesome,” Lambert said. “We’re so proud of them.”

The coach said the team had one small hiccup during its first performance, but otherwise “their performance was as good as they could do.”

“It was good to have that glitch on their first performance, because they performed flawlessly the next two times,” Lambert said.

On Sunday alone the team was at a Disney World venue for 12 hours.

“It was a long, grueling day and it took a lot out of them,” Lambert said. “They did really well and stayed together as a team. They didn’t get frazzled and didn’t get nervous about the big venue.”

Going into the Universal Cheerleaders Association’s National High School Championship, Lambert said the girls would benefit from seeing other teams that have been together for several years (the East Ridge team is in only its second year). The squad learned about stage presence and that they have to work on conditioning and tumbling, Lambert said.

“That’s it, because they performed really well,” she said.

More than 400 competition cheer teams from across the country participated in the event, which will be aired on ESPN. The dates the show will appear have not been set. People can check out the performances now on www.varsity.com.

“The girls have a really bright future,” Lambert said. “Even those that didn’t get to get out on the mat—it gives them an idea of: this is what it takes, this is what I need to do.”

The competition in Florida wraps up a successful season for East Ridge that included several top finishes at large events.

“It’s just a dream come true for us and we couldn’t have asked for more out of them,” Lambert said.

Already the team is clamoring for more practice time.

“We told them no, it’s time to take a break,” she said.