GTHS Makes School History at Nationals

The Grand Terrace High School first opened its doors in 2012. Each year since then the high school has been able to create a team for their cheer squads that make it to the large competition events. However, this year’s squad has gone a step further and won the title Varsity Show Cheer - Small Novice Division. This is the first year in Grand Terrace High School history where a squad has taken a Regional Title. In previous years, the cheer squads have competed in various divisions such as Advanced Non-Tumbling, Large Novice, and Intermediate. This year’s competition team is made up of a total of twelve athletes. They include eleven females and one male. The team includes a variety of grades which are three seniors, five juniors, three sophomores and one freshman. Coaches Jakob Parra and Gevina Parra hold up to three practices every week lasting anywhere from two to two and a half hours.  Each student dedicates their time to the team and continuously puts their entire effort and passion into their routines. For the routines used in competitions each one must comply with the 2017-18 AACCA School Cheer Safety Rules, 2017-18 USA High School Show Cheer and Group Stunt Division Limitations.  This requires the team to compile a routine that is at least 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The routine will generally include a cheer section, jump sequence, and stunting. Once competition times come around, the squad picks up on the practice time by increase hours of practice and adding additional practice dates if the facilities become available for use.  This year the Grand Terrace High School squad had their first Regional competition in Brea and competed against a total of 5 teams. They placed second in that competition. The team also participated in the Elsinore Regional competition and placed first with a total of 6 teams competing. The squad was able to meet and qualify at both USA regional events with a score of 75% or higher.  However, this year’s squad of cheer students made Grand Terrace High history. This is such a great accomplishment for the school and for the town. The cheer squad went to Nationals where there were a total of 27 teams competing in this division. On day one of the competition the squad performed impeccably. They hit a perfect routine! With this they were able to place 4th out of the 26 teams. Only the top nine squads would advance to the finals.  With their qualifying place Grand Terrace High School went on to compete in the finals for day two of the competition. Thanks to the dedication and passion of the team the cheer squad hit ANOTHER perfect routine! This allowed them to place at 5th place out of all 9 finalist schools.  This is no small accomplishment for this squad. The squad made history for Grand Terrace High School by placing in a national’s competition and becoming top 5 in the nation. The team and coaches could not be happier or prouder about this.