By Stephen Smoot
All season long, the Lincoln High School cheer squad gave fans in and around Shinnston much to, well, cheer on.
Last fall, Lincoln earned its way to the state tournament with a powerful performance at the Class AA Region II competition, held at their home court in Shinnston.
Next, the squad trekked to Preston County and battled the best of the Big 10 Conference, coming away with a narrow first place win over Bridgeport, taking a score of 91.45. The Tribe finished slightly behind with a score of 90.66. Lincoln Coach Amanda Brown told WV News at the time that “today was our best performance of the year,” adding “they literally left it all out there.”
Although winning the conference title does not affect state competition, it provided a strong boost of momentum as they traveled to Charleston.
Throughout the competition, the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission requires judges to use a complex scoring rubric covering every aspect of the squad’s performance. General sections include dance execution, stunt execution, and tumbling execution. Tumbling counts for 28 possible points and is divided into “standing and running tumbling execution, standing and running tumbling difficulty, tumbling risk and synchronization, and projection.
Somewhere in the tumbling rubric came a scoring error caught by the LHS coaching staff and submitted for review from administrators to the WVSSAC.
In mid-December came the announcement that “after a detailed review and analysis of the inquiry, the WVSSAC has determined that a clerical scoring and recording error occurred in the tumbling sub-score. Upon correction of this clerical error, the final team scores result in a tie between Lincoln High School and Westside High School.
The WVSSAC declared both co-champions.
Head coach Amanda Brown coached youth cheer for a decade prior to assuming her role at the high school. She explained during their state tournament run in 2023 that youth, middle, and high school squads remain closely coordinated to prepare athletes for the highest level of competition capability possible.
Throughout the 21st century, Lincoln has appeared regularly in state finals. Prior to this year, since 2002, LHS brought home four titles and two runner-up finishes.
LHS honored the squad with an assembly after the announcement. Team members included Haley Pernell, Victoria Beveridge, Alanna Delaney, Joey Cline, Jayden Holt, Lydia Toth, Elizabeth Hannah, Hannah Westfall, Kaylin Jackson, Reagan Gains, Haleigh Gump, Alvia White, Abigail McAtee, Gracie Hardesty, Gracelyn Wood, Elijah Carver, Lainey Sinno, Kinsley Ramsey, Catherine Hannah, Mazi Stonebreaker, Kinley Poling, and Kirra Robey.
Not all on the squad are part of the competition team, but all deserve mention for their roles in supporting all aspects of the squad and its activities.