Teams set for state cheering finals

Just one of the four defending state cheerleading champions will go into Saturday’s state competition as the reigning regional champ, too.

Rockland, which defended its regional title two weeks ago, will try to hold on to its Class B state crown as the state’s top cheerleading squads compete at the Augusta Civic Center.

The Class C teams, led by Eastern Maine champ Washington Academy of East Machias and Western Maine winner Lisbon, will kick off the day’s competition at 9 a.m. The Civic Center will open to the public at 7:30 a.m.

The Class A teams, including EM champ Brewer and WM champ Biddeford will follow, with their competition beginning at 12:55 p.m. The Civic Center will be cleared after the awards ceremony.

The Class D squads begin their competition at 4:25 p.m. as regional winner Machias and runner-up Deer Isle-Stonington will try for the state crown.

The day will finish with the Class B squads, including Rockland and Western Maine champ Poland. That competition will start at 7:45 p.m.

The top six teams from Classes A, B and C in each region gained spots in the state final. The top eight Class D teams advanced. Eastern and Western Maine are combined in that classification because there are just four Western Maine schools with cheerleading squads.

The sixth-place team from the East will perform first, followed by the sixth-place team from the West, then the fifth-place teams, and so on. In Class D the teams will perform from eighth place to first place.

There will be call-backs for the state tournament this week, which means each team performs its routine once, and the top four teams will be called back for the final competition.

There were no callbacks at the regional competitions, which was just one of the changes that have been implimented this year.

Spectators at recent cheerleading competitions may have noticed some big changes from previous years. Scores are different, and teams are allowed to know their score – but not where they placed – before the numbers are announced to the fans.

Both changes were brought on by the cheerleading coaches. Brewer coach Kristie Reed, who serves as a liaison to the Maine Principals’ Association cheerleading committee, said a committee of coaches came up with the new score sheet.

Teams can now earn up to 175 points instead of the 100 in the old scoring system. Each of the five judges can award 35 points and each judge scores two categories. The categories include jumps, stunts and tumbling.

The score sheet used to split scores in each of the categories so that teams would have a difficulty score and an execution score, and those two numbers would add up to a total score. On the new score sheet, judges have specific guidelines and give one score within a range.

“There’s so much subjectivity in cheering that one of the things we tried to do was take a little of that out,” Reed said. “We have ranges that go by difficulty and that decides what range you’re in.”

So far the new score sheet seems to be working, although Tammy Campbell, who served as the head judge at the Eastern Maine championships two weeks ago, said it will be looked at again after the season.

As far as the other change, coaches are now given a chance to look at their score sheets before the results are announced and made final. Although the hope is that will eliminate mathematical errors, Reed said coaches don’t have time to go through the addition anyway.

“Honestly, that’s not even what that’s for. You have to trust that that’s done right because you don’t have time,” Reed said. “It’s for you to make sure the score sheets in your hand all have your name on them. And there’s not necessarily an appeal process, but if there’s something on your sheets that’s not right, it gives you a chance to let them know.”

Campbell said there have been some computer glitches and human errors in past years, so it made sense to give coaches a chance to look over their sheets.