First-time championship appearance; first-time champions

Not every team wins a national championship in their very first competition. That is exactly what the South Dakota State University all-girl cheer squad did in its first-ever Universal Cheerleaders Association College Nationals appearance in April.

According to assistant coach Isabelle Masloski ’19, the decision to compete in the Open All Girl Game Day Cheer Division was made in January, giving the team three months to prepare.

“Some of the team members were excited and others were asking ‘what does this mean?’” Masloski said. “We didn’t enter it with high expectations but wanted to see how we would do. It was the perfect year for us to prepare a routine for nationals since we didn’t have to prepare normal routines for the football or basketball games (due to COVID-19 restrictions).”

SDSU posted the highest score after the semifinal round. That put a little extra pressure on the team as it prepared for its finals performance, which was also recorded and submitted as part of the virtual competition.

While Masloski and coach Quiana Pardee knew the Jackrabbits had won, the news came as a surprise to the team.

“There were a lot of tears … I think with just dealing with COVID-19 and everything we went through made (winning the championship) that much more special,” said Ally Zerfas, a captain from Brookings.

Masloski said the team has already seen some benefits of winning the national title.

“We had tryouts in April, and we will have someone from Oregon’s acrobatics team join the team this fall as a graduate student,” said Masloski, adding tryouts were after the finals but before the team knew it won the national title. “Everyone is really excited about going to nationals next year.

“This title brings us some recognition. As coaches, we’d like to recruit individuals to join the team instead of having tryouts but that’s a long-term goal and winning a national title should help us get there,” Masloski continued. “We know there are a lot of students who are used to competing in cheer in high school and would like to continue to do so at the collegiate level.”

– Matt Schmidt