After putting in countless hours in the gym, throwing new stunts and skills, and cheering at each football game and competition, competitive cheer prepared themselves for State on Feb. 7 and 8. Making it to the second day of competition, or placing in the top 10, was the team’s main goal, Skyla Hendrix ‘26 said. 

“We all listen to each other, we hear each other out, and we’re always trying to improve,” Hendrix said. 

Last year, the team won conference, and advanced to State after a strong showing at Sectionals, Hendrix said. The team did not advance past the first day of competition, however, placing 16th, six places and 2.02 points short of the cutoff for day two.    

“Day two of state is where we want to be [this year],” Head Coach Sharon Lupo said. 

Lupo has been coaching LT cheer for four years now. Prior to that, she had spent about 20 years coaching cheer, most recently for LaGrange Football Club (LFC) cheer, a feeder program to LT. She now coaches the 20 students on varsity, as well as the three alternates, with her assistant Ana Samaniego. 

“This is a great, great group of kids,” Lupo said. “They have a lot of heart. They all get along, they build each other up, they have great attitudes, and they’re very skilled.”

LT cheer practices three days a week for two and a half hours, starting in June and continuing through the end of their competition season. They also cheer at football and basketball games, plus other school wide events. 

“Everyone’s feeding off of each other’s energy,” Hendrix said. “If we’re all sad, practice is going to be really dead that day. So everyone does their best to hype each other up.”

This year, LT cheer competed in Conference at Hinsdale South on Jan. 20. The team won the competition for the second year in a row, defending their title. They defeated the 12 other teams in the West Suburban Conference varsity division, receiving a raw score of 92 and no deductions for their execution. 

“[Winning] was honestly crazy,” Hendrix said. “Two years in a row is a huge feat and our team was able to pull it off after all the work we put in throughout the season.” 

Following their victory at Conference, Cheer competed in Sectionals at Buffalo Grove High School on Feb. 1, placing third and qualifying for state. 

“[Cheer is] the only team sport where you can’t slack off because you’re killing it for literally everyone,” Hendrix said. “The stunt group takes four people. If one person’s not doing their job, it goes down.”

LT cheer competed at State on Feb. 7 and 8 at the Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington. At prelims, they placed fifth, qualifying for the second day of competition for the first time in LT history. After competing at finals, they finished in 10th place, culminating a record-setting season for the team.