Graves High students, staff, supporters welcome home champion cheerleaders | Schools

GRAVES COUNTY, KY (KFVS) - The Graves County Co-Ed Competition Cheerleading Squad poses in the Eagles’ Nest Gymnasium with the 2013 national championship trophy it won Feb. 9 at the Universal Cheerleading Association finals in Orlando, Fla.

Coach Jon Summerville has led the team to six UCA national titles in the Large Co-Ed Division. Junior McKenzie Carter has participated in three national titles.

“As Mr. Summerville said, we’ve had our struggles this year, but we came together in the end," she said. "We went out there and did what we needed to do. I think we were closer than most of the teams in the past.”

Senior Chris Vance added, “The biggest difference, to me, this year is that we only had one shot. We normally first participate in preliminaries and finals. That gives some people who haven’t competed before at this level the chance to know what it’s like on that floor. We literally had one shot and we made it.”

Cheerleaders, parents, teachers, and Superintendent Pete Galloway watch the team’s national championship performance, as recorded on technology, from the Universal Cheerleading Association Large Co-Ed Division Finals in Orlando, Fla.

Having won the school’s sixth UCA national title, the team next focuses its efforts on a seventh statewide title in Bowling Green Saturday, Feb. 23. This year, cheerleading oversight moves from the Kentucky Association of Pep Organization Sponsors to become a fully-sanctioned sport under the control of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association.

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