The Farmersville cheer squad had never qualified for the state competition before this season.

Competing in the class 4A-Divison II state championship in Frisco last Friday, Jan. 13, the Lady Farmers not only qualified for state but placed in the top 15 in the final tally. Farmersville ended the meet with a final score of 74.5, less than three points away from a top-10 finish, ending with the best result in school history. Lago Vista placed first overall in the same classification, finishing with a score of over 92 points.

Head coach Katie Vance was proud to see the improvement from the year before, where the Lady Farmers didn’t advance past the preliminary round.

“When I started last year, we were in a totally different boat,” Vance said. “Last year we scored second to last, and it was really exciting to go out there and do it. The girls were nervous because they realized they were doing something that had never been done before, but they still went out there and gave two solid routines in the end. We didn’t drop anything or had any deductions, so they really brought the house down and did a great job.”

Each cheer squad is graded on two different routines, including their school fight song performance as well as their crowd-leading performance. The Lady Farmers delivered consistent performances over both events, being graded on routine, visual effects and more. A big difference from last year’s performance to this year for coach Vance was the amount of time and investment into the cheer program that made a huge difference in the performance.

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