On the weekend of February 3, the varsity cheer team at Grayslake North got the well-earned opportunity to compete at State in Bloomington-Normal, IL.
Their performance was outstanding. They placed 16 in the state. The team put in a lot of effort to make it to State, with early mornings to late nights and many hours of practice.
“The routine originally starts with our choreographer coming in for a couple of days at the beginning of the season. He takes the skills we can do and then any ideas of a theme we may have and runs with it. While he initially puts together the routine, we tweak and change things along the way to make it fit our needs and personalities more. Once we start getting feedback from the judges, we also look at what they say and alter things based on their feedback and our scores,” said the varsity coach Ashley Barrie.
For some of the team, this may be their first year, and for some it’s their last year cheering with their North family. Along with the time left comes many new experiences and memories.
“It was amazing. All of the upperclassmen and sophomores talked about how fun it was, so I already had high expectations going into it and it just exceeded them. I had a super fun time, and I, of course, would love to go next year even just for the hotel and team time,” said freshman Cami Hook.
