It doesn’t take long to watch Radford’s competitive cheer team perform its most recent routine; this season’s piece clocks in at two minutes and 30 seconds.
When it comes to the amount of time and effort required to put the whole thing together, however, that’s a different story.
Starting last fall, the group’s 27 student members spent nine months practicing and refining their choreography and perfecting their skills, stunts and timing. The group convened four days a week for more than two hours each day, with occasional weekend sets.
This past spring, that hard work paid off. Repeatedly.
Across March and April, the team vied for victory at three events – the Cheer & Dance Extreme Shamrock Showdown in Baltimore; the Maximum Cheer & Dance Competition in Richmond, Virginia; and the Maximum Mountain National Championship in Cherokee, North Carolina – and left each meet with first-place wins.
Those successes came just a few months after the university founded the Club Sports Federation to support five newly elevated club sports, including pickleball, men’s rugby, men’s skeet and trap, women’s flag football and cheer.
“We do owe a huge thank you to the elevated club sports council, because they gave us the resources and opportunities to grow and learn and get through all the challenges,” team vice-president Lily Goggins said. “We also had a large number of athletes come and try out for our team, which gave us a deeper pool of talent.”
Radford’s assistant director of club sports, Keith Pulliam, said the team’s performance helps validate the federation’s decision.
“It definitely shows we picked the right group to elevate,” he noted. “We’re now thinking about transitioning other club sports, too.”
Pulliam praised the team leadership provided by Goggins and club president Carmen Glover, as well as Brooklyn Arven, a senior who acted as coach.
“They couldn’t find a coach in time, so they used one of the students. They decided they should go with her again next season, and I don’t blame them,” he said.
D.J. Preston, director of Student Recreation and Wellness, summed up the team’s winning strategy: “They are committed to their craft. They are committed to their practice schedule. They are committed to their routine.”
“I’m super excited for them and happy for them,” Preston added. “They certainly deserve all the success they’ve found.”
“I’m super excited for them and happy for them,” Preston added. “They certainly deserve all the success they’ve found.”
Goggins, a nursing major and a rising junior from Charleston, West Virginia, ascribed much of the team’s fortune to the bonding they experienced as they prepared.
“Over nine months, we all just became one big family. It’s really a great community to be a part of,” she said. “And it’s not all about winning. It’s about building trust with one another, working hard together, working and representing Radford.”
In addition to Arven, Glover and Goggins, Radford’s cheer team also includes Vallie Anderson, McKenna Auerbach, Grace Bevins, Kendall Bullion, Kenzie Conner, Brandon Englen, Ava Gorman, Emily Johnson, Caiden Jones, Emmaleigh Jones, Aeri Kensey, Grace Martin, Oliviana McKenna, Mary Alice Mize, Makaleigh Peters, Zoe Peters, Lilly Porter, Abigail Salter, Jenna Townsend, Emily Turner, Logan Virgili, Cecilia Wissman and Josephine Woods.
Neil Harvey for Radford University
