And the WINNER IS...

Costa Mesa High School
Costa Mesa, CA
GPA: 3.48

The Costa Mesa High School Cheerleaders are “committed to excellence!” By promoting school spirit on and off the field, being dedicated to their community and charity organizations, and striving to all be at the top of their class academically, these cheerleaders go above and beyond to be more than just girls in cute outfits shaking pom pons – they are true role models!

Grades and school involvement is the first priority of the Costa Mesa girls. Most of them are enrolled in AP courses, some are even taking college courses, and several of the girls volunteer themselves as tutors for junior high students. Tutoring is just the beginning of this team’s community service involvement. Making charity work a must, they have been involved in toy drives, Susan G. Komen, Relay for Life, mentoring young children, Going Green, and local community events.

When it comes to school spirit, this team has more spirit-raising activities than we can list. Some of them include t-shirt throws at games, the Mustang Maniac of the week or “biggest fan,” decorating at 4 a.m. for big games, and the Mustang Spirit Bus for out of town games. Their favorite spirit raisers is the Mustang Fan Throw, where they invite a fan to come down and attempt free throws during halftime and the Mustang Spirit Hunt where they host a scavenger hunt during the summer and invite fans to search for hidden treasures all over their town.

Thomas Hatch, the Assistant City Manager of the City of Costa Mesa says, “The City of Costa Mesa and our entire community are so fortunate to have such an outstanding cheer team at Costa Mesa High School!”

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The 1st runner up is...

Academic Magnet High School
Charleston, SC
GPA: 4.18 

Most people would think it would be hard for cheerleaders to get the students involved in an academic-based school, but that’s not the case for the Academic Magnet High School. To raise spirit the cheerleaders host monthly Spirit Nights at a local Chick-Fil-A. To get the school involved they also trained some of the boys at their school to be male cheerleaders or as they called it, Man-Leaders. After training them for two weeks, the boys showed off what they had learned at their school's Powder Puff Football Game.

To get involved in the community the cheerleaders took on the GoGirlGo program, which was created to give girls access to physical activity. To participant in GoGirlGo, teams must lead their own team project that will get girls in their communities physically active. The cheerleaders encourage physical activity through cheerleading by hosing a summer day clinic for children ages 3-13.

Interesting fact about the cheerleaders from Academic Magnet High School, this year they welcomed their first male cheerleader. Another interesting fact is that as they are welcoming one person they are losing another, they are saying goodbye to a special senior this year that’s only 16! She joined their cheerleading program as a 12-year-old high school freshman. 

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The 2nd runner up is...

Burlington-Edison High School
Burlington, WA

The Burlington-Edison cheerleaders have several traditions they do to keep the spirit up on campus and around the community. One of the ways they do this is by having a ‘Fan of the Week’ and a ‘Cheerleader of the Week.’ For every home and away game, the cheerleaders look for the most spirited student, parent, staff, or family member. They also look for people who are wearing the school colors, yelling with the cheer team, clapping and showing good leadership as a spectator. After the cheerleaders have chosen that person, they bring them down to the floor and the cheerleaders gather around that person and yell, ‘1 2 3 4 everybody stomp the floor for ___!’ They also receive a yellow construction hat and a spirit stick.

The Burlington-Edison cheerleaders not only do a great job raising school spirit, they also play a big role in their community. This year the cheer team took part in the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure in Seattle, Washington. At this event they ended up raising over $400 for a Burlington-Edison High School student in need.

This cheerleading squad also has some cool traditions they do to everyone who makes the new team. They do these traditions every year to bond with their team and to get to know each other better. Their favorite one is always the ‘Hula Hoop.’ For this activity one of the cheerleaders lays flat on her back on the ground and everyone on the team has to grab somewhere on his/her body and lift them up above their heads while passing a hula hoop from one end to the other. They do this 17 times and they even make their coaches do it!