T-L Photo/SETH STASKEY THE ST. Clairsville varsity and junior high cheerleaders – fresh off winning the inaugural OHSAA Spirit State Championships earlier this month at Wittenberg University in Springfield – formally present their trophies to school officials during a ceremony prior to Thursday’s varsity basketball game. The varsity cheering squad consists of Faith Campbell, Abby Simmons, Casadie Dibetta, Lindsay Balog, Madie Stock, Halle Hastings, Madyson Drosieko, Brooke Busby, Kamryn Orum, Alianna Hawthorne, Laili Dombroski, Chazz Harding, Shay Suto, Alivia DaRe’, Lydia Gross, Nya Davis, Angelina Applegarth and Ashlynn Stock. The junior high squad is comprised of Rylynn Yanok, Jolen Brannan, Haylee Hoffman, Karlee Higgins, Jayden Kindler, Madison Dodge, Lauryn Toriseva, Avamarie Norris, Alair Coyne, Ava Crum, Ava Borkoski, Olivia Perzanowski, Addisyn Glitch, Alexa Plumby, Emma Gasber, Leah Butts, Brynlee Newton and Gracie Smith. The coaches are Shawn Tomlan, Cathy Wolfe and Jamie Koehler.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The success in cheering that St. Clairsville High School has achieved is well documented.

The Red Devils have firmly established themselves as the premier program in Eastern Ohio, which is proven by the seven Ohio Association of Secondary Schools Administrators state championships and 16 OVAC titles they have won. They recently started attending the Ohio High School Cheerleading Coaches Association ‘Best in the State’ event and have won two of those titles as well.

The St. C. cheerleaders added another trophy to their crowded awards case on Dec. 11 at Wittenberg University in Springfield when they won the inaugural Division IV-V OHSAA State Spirit championship.

Actually, the Red Devils added several new trophies.

The junior high squad also won the inaugural team title, and both squads swept the individual aspect awards, too.

“This is a really big deal,” St. Clairsville cheering coach Shawn Tomlan said. “We feel like we hold our own in the Ohio Valley, but in other parts of Ohio, cheering squads are going to other really big competitions, so we didn’t know what to really expect. The girls did an amazing job.”

St. Clairsville competed in the high school division with 16 students, which was four fewer than the maximum allowed for the division. Due to injury, the Red Devils were down two cheerleaders from their original number.

The injuries actually led Tomlan and her assistant coach, Cathy Wolfe, to consider opting out of the event.

“We were very nervous going into the event,” Tomlan said. “Obviously, the format was totally new to us, but we had to change our routine twice during the week leading up to the competition. We had a girl break her foot and a girl sprained an ankle, so we got to the point where we didn’t know if we would even be ready.”

Clearly, the Red Devils were.

All told, 16 teams competed in Division IV-V. There was a qualifying round with the top six scores earning the right to compete for the awards. The scores were neither carried over to the finals nor announced, so the top six didn’t know how they fared against the other five competing.

“There was not a lot of time between the qualifier and the finals, but the judges gave some feedback and you quickly had to kind of implement some of that for the finals,” Tomlan said.

During the preliminary round, the Red Devils put forth an impressive showing, finishing with a combined score of 199.5. That was 13.5 points better than their nearest competitor.

The Red Devils put forth another strong effort in the championship round, posting the best score in band chant/fight song (44.75) and crowd leading (43.75) for a score of 88.5, which was six points ahead of Cincinnati Indian Hill, which was the only school in the final not from the Eastern District. Harrison Central finished third and Union Local was sixth.

“They announced the individual (discipline) scores first, so we knew if we won every division, we had the highest score,” Tomlan said. “It was still an amazing feeling to be called state champions. It was great to see the kids’ reaction because all of their hard work had paid off.”

The varsity squad that competed included: Faith Campbell, Abby Simmons, Casadie Dibetta, Lindsay Balog, Madie Stock, Halle Hastings, Madyson Drosieko, Brooke Busby, Kamryn Orum, Alianna Hawthorne, Laili Dombroski, Chazz Harding, Shay Suto, Alivia DaRe’, Lydia Gross, Nya Davis, Angelina Applegarth and Ashlynn Stock.

The junior high schools were put into one division and 10 schools took part. St. Clairsville was impressive in the qualifying round with a score of 210.25, which was 22.25 points ahead of its nearest competitor.

In the championship round, the Devils finished with a score of 92.0, which stemmed from a 44.75 in band chant/fight song and a 47.25 in crowd leading.

The junior high cheerleaders who competed were Rylynn Yanok, Jolen Brannan, Haylee Hoffman, Karlee Higgins, Jayden Kindler, Madison Dodge, Lauryn Toriseva, Avamarie Norris, Alair Coyne, Ava Crum, Ava Borkoski, Olivia Perzanowski, Addisyn Glitch, Alexa Plumby, Emma Gasber, Leah Butts, Brynlee Newton and Gracie Smith.

“Cheering’s number one job is to cheer on the boys in football and basketball, but competition cheering is a totally different thing,” Tomlan said. “These girls go year-round, working really hard. We’ve been fortunate at St. Clairsville to have some great kids and we’re fortunate our administration thinks so much of cheering because it never goes unnoticed.”

The OHSAA does not sanction competitive cheering, but it added the ‘Spirit’ championship, which is much different than what is competed in the OVAC or OASSA events.

“Spirit is the OHSAA”s way of bringing in cheerleading,” Tomlan said.

Spirit, which according to Tomlan is popular in other parts of Ohio at the high school level as well as in college, includes a three-minute routine, a dance to the school’s fight song, a dance to an additional band song that fans would be accustomed to hearing played at a football game and then the judges give each squad a scenario and they have to come up with a cheer.

“It’s a new format for us and many of the squads,” Tomlan said. “It’s not a traditional routine, but it still encompasses cheering motions, jumps and those types of things.”

The event was open to all squads in the state to sign up and then broken down by division, according to the school’s football team’s division. Because of the total number of schools competing, some of the divisions were combined.

“From what I’ve heard, the OHSAA was very happy with the turnout,” Tomlan said. “The (cheering) coaches wanted them to add junior high, which worked out well.”

The chance to compete under the OHSAA moniker was especially exciting for Tomlan. With the blessing and guidance of St. Clairsville schools Superintendent Walt Skaggs, who is active on the Eastern District Board and has served on the OHSAA Board of Directors, Tomlan has met with the last three OHSAA executive directors about the possibility of adding cheering to the state’s list of sanctioned sports.

“I’ve bugged the heck out of them,” Tomlan laughed. “Really, we’ve been waiting for this (championship opportunity) for a long time. I go as far back as Dr. (Daniel) Ross and (current executive director) Doug Ute has been great to work with on this. I’ve been coaching for 20 years, and having this OHSAA event led me to start to cry during the awards presentation because there were so many emotions.”