On April 11, UVU’s Game Day cheer team took first place at NCA’s Game Day Division 1 cheer competition in Daytona Beach, Fla. This was the fourth year in a row UVU’s Game Day team has won the national championship. The celebration was encapsulated by the team running into and celebrating in the ocean with the trophy and banner.
The Game Day team consists of cheerleaders, dancers, a drumline from the Green Man Group and the school’s mascot Willy. “It’s interesting to blend groups like that. Because we are all so different. A lot of the time there is actually a language barrier, says coach and UVU Cheer alumna Abby Bradley “For example, the way cheer speaks about music is very different from GMG. But if we all approach each other with respect to each other’s art, there is more patience and learning involved, and we can create a beautiful masterpiece.”
Their performance in the finals earned the team a total event score of 90.60. Merrimack College took second place with a total score of 85.35, a whole 5.3 points behind UVU. A margin this high in the world of collegiate cheer and dance is seen as a blowout win.
“Usually it falls down to only winning by one to two points that determines who is the champion. By the end of day one we were up four points, and day two we left the other teams so far behind the judges had to lie about how far ahead in points we were to make the contest seem fair” said team member Carl Prior.
Coach Abby Bradley remarked, “I don’t know what it was about this team. Something within the last month just clicked. It felt like the universe just fell into place and it felt right. It was very euphoric. I’ve never had a team want to work so hard. They truly earned that championship. They held each other accountable but were so kind to each other. There was a special type of love in the air even though they’d only known each other for a short time. You could tell there was a lot of passion and talent. It was very special and unique.”
