The St. Charles Cheer team had three competitions during the 3rd week of February. The first was held in the new gymnasium at St. Charles High School where the Bulldogs finished 2nd place to a strong Chesaning Indian cheer team. Coach Stimac stated, “This was not our best performance, but the girls gave their all. Chesaning has strong coaches and definitely had them ready for the mat. We are behind Chesaning in our tumbling skills for this season, and they will be tough to beat this year.” On February 25th, the Bulldogs travelled to Sanford Meridian to take on the rival Marauders. The Bulldogs came up short and place 2nd among four teams. Sandford took first place and Coach Stimac said, “We will clean up our tumbling, precision, and stunting to beat Sanford when they come to St. Charles on March 6th.”
The 3rd competition for STC tested the coach and team when they had two girls on their team get in car accidents the day before the performances. Girls had to switch spots, routines had to be changed and the bulldogs had to pull this together in one hour. Coach Stimac had to make some tough decisions about pulling some kids out of the routine, but with so many changes, the most experienced girls needed to be on the mat. Senior Kirsten Franzel hit 5 one legged stunts and 5 twist cradles with help of juniors Zoe Pease and Melanie Symons who completed all stunts in round 3.
The bulldogs triumphed and ending up placing 2nd to a strong Bay City Western team. The girls were also very proud to beat Midland High coached by former St. Charles graduate, Ben Fuller. Midland is a Division 1 team and we struggle to compete with them, but you never know what can happen on any given day. The Bulldogs were thrilled with their 2nd place finish.