The Windsor Knights Jr. Midget cheer team, led by head coach Christina Carroll, assistant coaches Katie Young and Jordyn Vehmeyer and junior coach Jayden Tyler have had an amazing cheer season.
The Jr. Midgets, along with their coaches, devoted a lot of their time and energy to their cheer family. For some of these girls, this is their last Nationals year because the Windsor Knights only compete at Nationals every two years and those girls who are currently seventh graders would be freshmen in high school. This year was their last chance to take home first place at a Nationals cheer competition with the Knights.
This year’s cheer season started at a local cheer competition on Nov. 4, 2017 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. There were cheer teams in all divisions from Napa, Novato, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Windsor, Healdsburg and Ukiah.
The Jr. Midgets took home first place for their division and won grand champions as well. Winning grand champion is quite an honor because they scored the highest among all the cheer teams that competed that day, ranging from Jr. Pee Wee all the way up to Midget level.
After competing in the local competition, the Jr. Midgets were on their long and hard road to Nationals. To compete at Nationals, the team needed to qualify at a United Spirit Association Regionals competition. The regional competition that was chosen was at Merrill West High School in Tracy on Nov. 11. With only one week of practice between their previous competition, the Jr. Midgets received their bid for Nationals and placed first place in their own division.
This year the girls also competed in a JAMZ competition. This is the first time the Knights have competed in a JAMZ competition. JAMZ is a more challenging competition versus a United Spirit Association competition.
This competition was at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on Dec. 2. The girls placed first place in their division. Out of the 85 teams that competed the Jr. Midgets received the Superior Jumps Award from the judges.
Then it was back to practice and working towards winning at Nationals at the Anaheim Convention Center on Sunday, Feb. 25. Two years ago, the team went to Nationals at Knotts Berry Farm and placed second in their division. They were working extra hard this year to place first. All their hard work paid off and the Jr. Midgets took home first place in their division.
