Cheerleading, like many sports, is one that relies heavily on teamwork. Unfortunately, it is incredibly hard to just substitute one cheerleader for another when one cannot perform.

This was proven during the FCPS Fall 2022 Counties competition, when nine out of 16 girls on JV were out with the flu and six girls on varsity were either injured or sick.

Sadly, this situation led the Linganore JV team to drop out of the competition and the varsity team to lose to Oakdale High School.

Luckily they were able to redeem themselves at the 2023 FCPS Winter Counties held at Urbana High School.

On January 18, seven schools from across Frederick County were ready to compete for their spot at Regionals. It was at the competition that Linganore Cheer proved they were some of the best, when both varsity and JV teams came in first place.

Frederick High School placed second for both JV and varsity. Host school Urbana won third place for varsity, while Thomas Johnson High School earned third place for JV.

However, Linganore’s victory at Counties was hard-fought. Just like the fall season, the winter had its ups and downs.

With a new season comes a new team and routine, but this time there was not an entire month to prepare the new cheerleaders, some of whom had to learn the routine from scratch.

As with every sport, injuries can also impact a team’s success. This season, Linganore JV cheerleader Kaelyn Bass sustained two concussions, forcing her to sit out of practice for a period of time and limiting the rest of the team’s ability to practice their full routine.

Consequently, stress levels were high at both practice and when in the hole–about to perform–at the competitions.

JV flyer Ashley Corrigan said, “Whenever our stunt would fall, I would feel stressed out, but it just made me want to practice more.”

While at the competition, many such as LHS varsity cheerleaders Carmen Monzon and Whitney Burgess said that the most stressful thing was not even performing.

Instead, it was the anticipation right before performing when the cheerleaders were waiting for their team name to be called to showcase the routine they worked so hard on.

For Linganore cheer coaches, first place is always what they strive for and have often been able to achieve.

JV head coach Autumn Sohn has not lost a single counties competition in her six years with the program. Similarly, the varsity team, under head coach Amy Rumburg, has won nine county competitions during her time at Linganore.

Luckily for them, despite the odds, both JV and varsity teams were able to walk away with a first place win once again.

Next up, Regionals!