It’s time to get loud and it’s time to represent! As the Palm Harbor Panther (PHP) football season starts, so does cheer season. These PHP cheerleaders spend countless hours every week with dedication and determination.

Starting in August, every PHP athlete is busy on Saturdays. Football players have games that each cheerleader must attend in order to participate in their competitions. Football season starts in August and after a long, hot three months, competition season for cheer begins.

On November 27th, 2016, PHP cheer had their regional competition. Regionals is where every team from the southeast region competes in Orlando, Florida. However, only those who place in the top two advance to Nationals, where teams from all over the United States compete, again, in Orlando, Florida.

The cheerleaders of PHP performed flawlessly. Almost all PHP teams got first place and their Varsity Blue team was awarded best pyramid of the day and high point of the day. Each team will be moving on to Nationals. The Varsity Silver (VS4) team’s performance will be televised on ESPN on December 8th.

Assistant Coach Jewel Photopulos off the Varsity Silver cheer team wants nothing less for her girls than a national title.

“I can’t do this for the girls, they must do it on their own. They have to make the choice that they want it. I believe that they will be able to win this year, but it’s going to be hard and they need to be confident in who they are and what they’re doing,” Photopulos said.

PHP cheer teams are now getting geared up for Nationals. With jumps, tumbling, stunting, motions, transitions and a dance, each girl must hit everything in order to win a national title.

They also need confidence and attitude to win this competition. These girls have the skills but they just need to execute them well.

When Varsity Silver competed on Thursday December 8th, 2016 they placed second out of four teams with a score of 83.74 out of 100. Varsity Silver also won the ‘Best Spirit of Sportsmanship’ award out of the whole day. Considering Varsity Silver had to perform twice because of an injury, these results are amazing. The Palm Harbor Panthers could not be more proud of their cheerleaders.

Although the cheerleaders of VS4 expect to come back next year and win a national title, everybody is satisfied with the results of this season already.

With Pride and Spirit, let’s hear for the Palm Harbor Panther cheerleaders!