News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Tech Spirit Team finished fourth in the annual Collegiate Nationals Event for the second year in a row.
The team traveled to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, after competing in the Nationals Showcase in Cookeville the night prior. Tennessee Tech Spirit Head Coach Sydney Hickerson said she is so excited to have gotten the fourth place finish.
“We’re so proud to get fourth,” Hickerson said. “They worked really, really hard for it. And I’m just excited to kind of see where we go next year and how much better we can be next year.”
Hickerson said more than 200 colleges are represented at the UCA Nationals every year.
“I hope that people know how athletic cheer-leading is and how intense it is because if you have one small bobble or something is out of place, you’re done for the year so the perfection of the craft is so important because you only get one shot,” Hickerson said. “I compare it to like basketball or football where if you miss a shot or something goes on in a game, you still have 40 more minutes to make it up or you’ve got a whole quarter to make it up or a whole half to make it up but with us, you don’t, so it’s really, you have to get it perfect the very first time that you do it to be able to keep on competing.”
Tennessee Tech finished above 50 percent in their division after day one, which consisted of 11 other teams. Hickerson took over coaching at Tennessee Tech after coaching Arkansas State.
“You go down there [to Orlando] and you get one routine that you get to perform,” Hickerson said. “If anything happens in that one time that you go through your routine, you’re basically done for the year so the pressure is on. The pressure is very extreme.”
