Monticello High School competition cheerleaders took home the Jefferson District Title in October and are preparing to wow judges in the regional competition on Nov. 5 at Powhatan High School.

“It was awesome,” said Susan Barlow, one of three captains and a senior who lives in Scottsville. “It felt so good and the crowd was amazing; they were giving me chills they were so loud.”

Coach Veronica Price-Thomas, who has led the squad for 14 years at Monticello, is certainly proud of her squad.

“My squad is amazing,” she said. “These girls worked together really well this year.”

“It was pretty amazing,” said Jessica Cash, one of the captains and a senior who lives in Esmont. “The four years that [Susan Barlow and Cash] have been on it we’ve never won and to know that we actually put the routine together and we led the team to win is pretty amazing.”

Timerra Vest, also a senior and from Esmont, has been on the squad for two years. “It feels good to win.”

The squad is not resting on its win, though. On Oct. 27 they were in the gym practicing the routine the captains put together. The squad practices every day but Sundays.

“We look on YouTube and then we try tons of different stunts and try a lot and we work on music—we spent hours doing music,” Barlow said.

The captains are a bit nervous, but not about their routine. “Everything went how we wanted it. Everything we planned happened,” Barlow added.

Price-Thomas said the captains had the routine and music a month before competition, allowing for additional time to practice.
“That’s part of our success,” Price-Thomas said. “District was amazing. When they hit the floor they were ready to win. They were very confident and ready to win.”

Even though the squad knows this routine the girls are still excited and nervous about regionals.

“I think we’re nervous because it’s our first time going,” said Vest, who would like to attend Georgia Tech and study psychology.
Cash agreed. “I’m a little nervous. We’ve usually not placed, but it would be really exciting if we did.“

Barlow said everyone in the school has been really supportive of the squad’s placement—“especially the football team.”

“They’ve seen how hard we’ve worked,” Cash added.

Price-Thomas said the captains have worked so well together this season.

“I don’t think we’ve ever disagreed on anything,” Barlow said.

If the squad places at regionals on Nov. 5 it will move on to the state competition. It wasn’t the placement at districts that has been the best thing about this season, though.

“It’s the sisterhood,” Barlow said and Vest agreed: “definitely.”

“We’re a very close squad,” Cash added.

The captains said the coach keeps up with everything, including the girls’ grades. “She’s like a second mom,” said Barlow, who would like to attend the University of Virginia and become a medical doctor.

If the captains could alleviate one misconception about cheerleading it would be that cheerleading is not a sport. “I think people who say cheerleading is not a sport definitely don’t understand how hard we work,” Barlow said.

Cash, who would like to attend Virginia Commonwealth University and study criminal justice, added, “Cheerleading is the only sport you have to be perfect in to win … in football you can miss the ball and still win. In cheerleading you only have one chance.”
Price-Thomas invites Monticello supporters to attend regionals on Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. and “yell for the Mustangs. It helps. I think the more they yelled the better they performed because I saw something I hadn’t seen before.”

Cash agreed. “We feed off people’s energy.”

“We can tell they want more and we pull it out,” Vest added.