The competition was in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. It lasted three days and hosted 192 different teams from all over the nation. The routines, both coed and all-girl, were judged for not only their overall performance but also their individual components such as stunting, tumbling skills and ability to interact with the crowd.
“It was just really an amazing accomplishment for our program for both teams not only to participate but win,” said Jennifer Thrasher, cheerleading and Big Al coordinator. “It’s hard to describe since it’s never been done for one school where all-girl and coed have both won, so we’re so proud of them.”
This is the coed team’s third title, adding onto the two from 1983 and 2011. This is the all-girl’s team first title. Last year was the all-girl team’s first time to make an appearance at the national championship, having only started as a team four years ago. Overall, this is the University’s second time to have both teams compete in the national championship in the same season.
Thrasher said coed coach Brian Groeschell and all-girl coach Brandon Prince both do a fabulous job with their respective teams.
Under Groeschell’s coaching, the coed team was able to defeat Kentucky, who won the title last season when Alabama placed third.
“I just made sure I let every little thing we did sink in, especially all of the team events,” said senior coed cheerleader Macie Cooley. “It was almost bittersweet because I knew as soon as I stepped off that mat, it was coming to an end, and I wasn’t going to see these people I call my family pretty much all day, every day anymore.”
Cooley said there was no better way to finish her final season as a coed cheerleader than with a national championship, but the title was just one takeaway from her experience at the University.
“I earned way more than just a national championship title cheering for this school,” Cooley said. “The many life lessons I was taught could have never been gained without having this experience.”
The all-girl team had to fight a long, hard battle in order to knock down Indiana, the three-time defending national champion.
“It’s over in two minutes and thirty seconds,” said senior Clarke Kelly, a member of the all-girl squad. “We spent all these hours, and all these days, practicing and sweating and doing everything to be prepared. Then you go out there, and you have two and a half minutes to show everyone what you’ve been working on.”
When the all-girl team competed on the first day, not a single stunt was dropped.
“We hit the routine, and I couldn’t help it – I just started crying,” Kelly said. “I grabbed my teammate and swung her in the air and had tears coming down my eyes.”
Kelly was one of the first all-girl cheerleaders at The University of Alabama since the team was started when she was a freshman. As each year progressed, she watched the team develop as a whole, only to finish it off with a title, she said. Kelly said it wasn’t the winning that was her favorite part of the competition, but instead it was being on the mat with her team after hitting their routine and knowing they did the best they could. She said it was the feeling of pure joy after they performed that she will always remember.
When she found out that the coed team also won, Kelly said it “was the cherry on top of the whole experience.” It didn’t completely settle in – the fact that both of Alabama’s cheer teams had just won national championship titles – until arriving back to Tuscaloosa, she said.
“It was exciting, but it felt like we were in a dream,” she said.
