{"id":15316,"date":"2025-12-10T07:19:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T14:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-cheer-showcase-primes-teams-for-state\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:46:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:46:39","slug":"mancos-cheer-showcase-primes-teams-for-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-cheer-showcase-primes-teams-for-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos Cheer Showcase primes teams for state"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Mancos cheer team performs at the Mancos Cheer Showcase on Monday evening at Bluejay Fieldhouse. Ben Bradley\/Special the The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

More than 100 cheer athletes from area schools sat in rings with their teams on the Bluejay Fieldhouse floor, awaiting the results of Mancos\u2019 inaugural Cheer Showcase as AC\/DC\u2019s classic rock anthem \u201cThunderstruck\u201d blared through the gym speakers.<\/p>\n

Each squad thumped the mats in unison to the song\u2019s beat as laughter echoed off decorated walls.<\/p>\n

With final scores tabulated, a few minutes of free time sparked an impromptu gymnastics party filled with playful challenges including handstands, splits, cartwheels and other feats. The county hadn\u2019t hosted a cheer showcase in more than a decade, but participants\u2019 energy told the story \u2013 the event deserves an encore.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Dolores cheer team performs at the Mancos Cheer Showcase on Monday evening at Bluejay Fieldhouse. Ben Bradley\/Special the The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The hosts took top honors in individual, stunt and overall team categories in their final tuneup before Friday\u2019s state appearance at the Denver Coliseum, but prizes were secondary to the main takeaway.<\/p>\n

While family and friends have seen their schools\u2019 cheer teams perform at football, volleyball and basketball contests over the years, the competitive side of the sport finally got its due. Behind-the-scenes work from Mancos, Dolores, Dove Creek and area middle school programs was on display for a Four Corners audience.<\/p>\n

Coordinated by Mancos head coach Megan Daves, the event received wide acclaim from visiting coaches and fans alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so great that they [Mancos] put this together,\u201d said Dolores head coach Melissa Herrera. \u201cSometimes our girls are more nervous to perform in front of people they know instead of people they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recognizing collective nerves and mutual appreciation for the difficulty of their task helps develop camaraderie between schools, even when they compete directly on the score sheet. The immensity of the state championships \u2013 both the venue and the environment \u2013 makes that connection even more important, according to Herrera.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re surrounded by a bunch of teams that are there to support you \u2013 and the upperclassmen are able to help the freshmen, bring them to center, and help them perform their best\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Dove Creek cheer team performs at the Mancos Cheer Showcase on Monday evening at Bluejay Fieldhouse. Ben Bradley\/Special the The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mancos senior captain Elly Coey collected two individual honors, but as the Bluejays enter the state championships with upperclassmen leadership and competitive flair, they performed before their home crowd with extra edge.<\/p>\n

Mancos heads to state with a polished routine full of complex aerial stunts from its co-ed crew, hoping to stick timing in its 150-second performance to impress judges in the 2A\/3A Co-Ed division.<\/p>\n

Developing routines, learning tumbling, building chemistry and making on-the-fly adjustments are just some challenges coaches face as they cater to athletes\u2019 strengths.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s learning everything \u2013 how to bounce back from tumbling falls, putting in the time commitment, learning over sixty cheers \u2013 it\u2019s a lot bigger task than I think most people understand,\u201d added Herrera. \u201cAnd every year we change the routine \u2013 and we change the stunts based on what we think our girls are capable of \u2013 but we try to make it our own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herrera pointed to Dove Creek\u2019s historic cheer success and state championships as something current area teams aspire to achieve.<\/p>\n

Dolores and Montezuma-Cortez head to championships for the 2A and 3A Cheer competitions, respectively, hoping their final opportunity comes together at the right moment.<\/p>\n

The Panthers and Bears open Friday\u2019s action with back-to-back performances at 8:04 a.m. and 8:08 a.m., while Mancos takes the floor at 3:20 p.m., each aiming for a finalist spot later that evening.<\/p>\n

As for the Cheer Showcase itself, Four Corners fans witnessed firsthand just how composed their teams performed while under pressure.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inaugural event in Bluejay Fieldhouse draws teams from six schools<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15316"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20721,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15316\/revisions\/20721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15316"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}