{"id":15480,"date":"2025-11-28T10:46:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T17:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-high-cheer-team-wins-regional-title-aims-for-state-championships\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:48:09","slug":"dolores-high-cheer-team-wins-regional-title-aims-for-state-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-high-cheer-team-wins-regional-title-aims-for-state-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores High cheer team wins regional title, aims for state championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores High School cheerleading team members Kaida Barry, Reagan Burger, Harley Jeter, Savannah Johnston, Rachel Plubell, all juniors; Megyn Condon, Hailey McClain and Isabella Myers, all sophomores; and Hailey Gee, Kaylee Mortimer and Jordyn Witsken, all freshmen, won the 2025 Western Colorado Spirit Regional competition. Photo courtesy of Melissa Herrera.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Dolores might need more space to showcase its autumn hardware.<\/p>\n

Between plaques and banners from athletic wins, the Bears have plenty to celebrate \u2013 and who better to honor those achievements than the school\u2019s cheerleaders?<\/p>\n

The DHS cheerleading squad added to the lore of the Year of the Bear in 2025, taking home the Western Colorado Spirit Regional championship in the 2A all-girls division earlier this fall. With the state championships just two weeks away, Dolores hopes to parlay its recent success into a strong finish on the Denver Coliseum mats.<\/p>\n

Under the guidance of head coach Melissa Herrera, the DHS spirit team finished ninth in its division at last year\u2019s state meet and has worked hard to prepare a young, 11-member group for another run at the finals.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores
Dolores High School cheerleading team members Kaida Barry, Reagan Burger, Harley Jeter, Savannah Johnston, Rachel Plubell, all juniors; Megyn Condon, Hailey McClain and Isabella Myers, all sophomores; and Hailey Gee, Kaylee Mortimer and Jordyn Witsken, all freshmen, won the 2025 Western Colorado Spirit Regional competition. Photo courtesy of Melissa Herrera.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cOnly five of our 11 competed at the state level, so this year we had to go back to the basics to ensure everyone had the knowledge of stunt safety,\u201d said Herrera of the team\u2019s learning curve, \u201cand we couldn\u2019t be happier with how the new girls caught on and the returnees improved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores joins other Southwest Colorado schools for a final practice performance at the Mancos-hosted Cheer Showcase on Dec. 3 to fine-tune its routine.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Dolores cheer team performs a stunt at a home football game this fall. Photo courtesy of Melissa Herrera.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cOne of our main goals is for all of our stunts to hit properly,\u201d added Herrera \u2013 a focus during summer and fall training. She noted that attending a summer camp at Colorado Mesa University helped build team chemistry early.<\/p>\n

On a team without any seniors, juniors Kaida Barry and Savannah Johnston have emerged as captains. \u201cThey\u2019re amazing leaders \u2013 and take that role seriously,\u201d said Herrera of her captains, \u201cthey\u2019re trustworthy and responsible, and are role models both on the mat and in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a youthful team still growing into its potential, Herrera shared her excitement about the team\u2019s potential over the next two years. \u201cWe believe that we have the best chance that we\u2019ve had yet,\u201d said Herrera of her team\u2019s prospects at the state championships Dec. 11-13, \u201cand have an even higher chance next year considering none of our girls are seniors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans can catch the Bears, along with Mancos, Montezuma-Cortez and Dove Creek, plus other area teams, at 6 p.m. Dec. 3 at Bluejay Fieldhouse in Mancos to support all teams at the Cheer Showcase before the 2A and 3A state championships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

squad prepares for major competitions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15481,"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-15480","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\/15480","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=15480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19679,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15480\/revisions\/19679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15480"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}