2/14/15: The Rutland Raiders Varsity Cheerleading Squad recently made local headlines for being the 2nd high school team in Vermont to make it to Nationals (Essex placed 3rd in 2005). RHS Cheer placed 2nd and put Vermont cheerleading on the map.
Eva caught up with the Raiders at the VCCA Cheerleading Competition at Mill River Union High School in North Clarendon on a snowy Valentine’s Day to see what makes their squad so successful.
You can see the Raiders compete at States next weekend in Vergennes. READY, OK!
Music
- “The Blue Danube Waltz” by Johann Strauss
- Phil Spitalny, “Cheer Up Good Times are Coming”
This episode of Stuck in Vermont was made possible by
Hotel Vermont and Vermont Tourism
This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2015.
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To be fair, St Michael’s College has also gone to a National event. They were the first Vermont team to ever go to a National event. Granted that was college and not High School, but the video gives the impression that only two teams from Vermont have ever participated at one of the National events that are held throughout the country, and that is incorrect. Congratulations to Rutland for their achievement at their competition. In this video you can see the athleticism that it takes to be involved in Cheerleading.
Thanks very much for this important clarification. That is a huge achievement for St Michael’s cheerleading team. Because this was a video featuring high school cheerleaders, I only referenced Rutland HS and Essex HS’s trips to nationals. I should have said that this is the 2nd time a VT high school cheerleading team has ever made it to nationals (I’ll change the video description above). If I have time, I’ll add a clarification on WCAX tomorrow (Thursday at 5:30pm). Out of curiosity, how many other VT college cheer teams have attended to nationals?
St Michael’s went to an event in 2003. Those are the only three teams to have ever competed at any of these events. Thanks for featuring cheerleading! You captured some great footage!
Eva, I just want to say that was an excellent piece on cheerleading. I think that a lot of Vermont does not highlight the work of these young ladies nearly enough. All the other sports in VT get lots of coverage and the cheerleading squads are neglected. My daughters cheerleaded back in the late 80’s in Vergennes and I have had some nieces that recently competed. I am so glad you did this video. I wish the Burlington Free Press would cover these cheerleading events. Thank you.
Thanks Earlene and IGIVEUPWINTER. In case you missed it, I was on WCAX last night and I made sure to mention St. Mike’s accomplishments as well! http://www.wcax.com/story/28153877/stuck-in-vermont-rutland-raiders-varsity-cheerleading
Which category were they in? I thought they were 2nd place overall, but then I see that there are about 30 different categories, and most people will have no idea what their category was. But I can deduce there aren’t in the co-ed category, or the non-tumble category, since i saw some tumbling….