The Oxford High School cheerleading team recently placed second in their division at the National High School Cheerleading Competition. The Chargers competed against 45 of the best cheer teams in the nation over the three day competition. At the beginning of this year’s season, the team welcomed new head coach Amelie Goss from Northwest Rankin High School. Goss shared her journey as a coach and how the team made their way to nationals this year.
“When I was at Northwest Rankin, we experienced a lot of success there,” Goss said. “We were one of those teams that everybody knew was going to come in first for at least place in the top three. When I got hired here, one of the first things I asked was do they go to nationals. I was given an immediate no. As the season went on, we started to have some success and going to nationals started to be an option.”
As practice for the team begins early in the summer, Goss explains how this year helped grow the team and the program in many positive ways.
“I feel like they took away from this experience everything I wanted them to,” Goss said. “The finals night was their 99th full out, so they had worked really hard. They kinda knew what it felt like to work hard and all the benefits you can feel from that. Now I think that we have laid that foundation. Hopefully this can become an expectation for the program and we can continue to move forward to grind for the gold.”
Coaching alongside Goss are assistant coaches Haddie Hogue and Lee Williams. Goss explains the key factors this year that allowed them to have the success that they experienced.
“I think that the staff that I was able to bring on with Lee and his experience along with Haddie who was already a middle school coach has been amazing,” Goss said. “I also think that girls have always wanted this kind of success because they are so talented and they are 100% capable but they were not used to putting in the type of work it took to get to where we are now. Once they tasted some success, we did not have to push them as hard because they wanted to put in the work.”
Although the goal for the team was to finish on top, senior captain Caty Schmelzer explains why she thinks the competition was more than just winning.
“Obviously, we wanted to win the competition and bring the title back to Oxford,” Schmelzer said. “Our main goal going into nationals was to perform three routines that we were proud of, and bond closer with the team and that was exactly what we did. We performed three flawless routines that anybody could watch and be proud of, so that made us really happy and just came closer as teammates and as family so that is all that really matters.”
With a new foundation of OHS cheer, the team is ready to build from this experience and continue to get better.
“We set the standard this year and we were really proud of how we performed,” junior co-captain Griffy Chrestman said. “We are going to use this to become a better team and look back at this experience and grow from it. I think now there is a new expectation for our team that we have not had in the past and I think that will push us to be better.”
