12 | THE BI-WORD
Cheerleading Wins Yet Another National Championship By Thad Worth
This year, the Bishop Ireton cheerleading team had the highest score at the Cristian Cheer Nationals (CCN) and won first place in the four routines that they did. The B.I. cheer team has won first place at Nationals and the Grand Championship every year since 2016 (except for 2021, as the competitions were not held due to COVID-19). They also had the chance to show their skills to the greater Washington area when Fox 5 visited B.I. to feature the team doing several of their routines and interviewed Coach Angel Hope-Eskew along with the team’s seniors Regan Houser and Isabella Leathers. Going into the season many team members didn’t have much previous experience, with only two members of the team having cheered
competitively before. Creating an even tighter squeeze was the injury of three of the cheerleaders teammates making them unable to compete at the national championship. Despite this, the team managed to come in first place in their four routines beating the odds and overcoming the challenges they faced. “I had full confidence in my team” Regan Houser told the Fairfax Times “winning was super exciting, we were sitting on the mat holding hands.” Reagan Houser, a senior, is very proud of the team explaining that this is the first time that the team has done four routines, and they came in first place in all four. The team has also won the Spirit of Competition award in 2020, which measures
a team’s enthusiasm and encouragement of others. Another senior, Isabella Leathers has been on the team for 3 years and talked about how some of the cheerleaders on the team have gone on to cheer at the collegiate level. One has become the captain at Elon University. With strong commitment and an enthusiastic team, the Bishop Ireton cheerleaders are likely to continue to win national titles and championships for years to come, bringing home trophies and victories that will ensure that they are never forgotten.
