Between January 28th and February 2nd, the Woodford County Cheer team attended the National High School Cheerleading Championship in Orlando, Florida. The competition was held for three days at ESPN Wide World of Sports, with the preliminary round beginning on Friday, January 30th, 2026, and the final round on Sunday, February 1st, 2026. On Sunday, WCHS Cheer made it to finals and unexpectedly won a back-to-back national title.
WCHS won its first cheerleading national title in 2018 and again in 2025. In the 2025 National High School Cheerleading Championship, Woodford won the Small Coed DII Traditional division. That weekend, they put out multiple zero-deduction routines, meaning no stunt falls, bobbles, or tumbling touchdowns. The win gained lots of popularity for the WCHS Cheer team. The routine was the sixth most-watched routine out of the entire competition, where there were over 1,300 teams.
Going into nationals in 2026, Woodford had the highest score out of all teams in the Large Varsity Coed Gameday division and one of the highest scores in the Small Varsity Coed Traditional division. The team had a goal to keep their title in the traditional division and win their first title in gameday. Headed into the competition, Woodford County had a large weight on their shoulders and a giant target on their backs.
On Friday, the 30th, WCHS competed in the preliminary round of the traditional division. The team ended up with one point in deductions and scored a 76.2, securing them a spot in the semi-finals on Saturday. On Saturday, they competed in both gameday and traditional routines. They did not have their best performance in the traditional division, with 1.75 points in deductions, and did not make it to the finals in traditional. Gameday happened later that day, where the cheerleaders gave an excellent performance. They advanced to finals in second place, only 0.7 points behind the first-place team, Archbishop Shaw, who won the division in 2025. After advancements were announced around 3:00, the team was eager to make up those 0.7 points to try to win the national title. They went out in the 20-degree weather and wind and practiced the parts of the scoresheet on which the judges made comments.
On Sunday, February 1st, 2026, Woodford competed in the final round of the gameday division around 9:00 in the morning. The team was confident going into finals, knowing they could make up the 0.7 points in the routine by making the corrections given previously. They had an excellent, energy-packed performance; however, it was not perfect. During the cheer portion, a flagpole snapped in half in the back. During the fight song portion, two chair stunts bobbled. Many came off the floor not knowing how the routine went until watching the video backstage. At that point, the team thought they had no chance because in gameday, everything must be perfect to win. When leaving the arena, WCHS Cheer saw Archbishop Shaw disappointed, not knowing at the time that they dropped two stunts.
A few moments later, scoresheets came out. The team hit zero. With the broken flag and two chair bobbles, they should have received over one point in deductions, but they had none. The cheerleaders rejoiced, cheered, and cried happy tears all around because it wasn’t over for them after all.
Awards were moments later. Woodford Cheer went backstage, lined in rows of five, holding hands. They were nervous, yet after receiving zero deductions, they were hopeful. They entered the arena, sat on the floor, and clung to each other as the awards began. Only six teams had made it to the final round. Announcements proceeded to the top two, Woodford County High School and West Harrison High School; the winner was yet to be called. Then, West Harrison was called as second. Woodford jumped in joy. They had just become back-to-back national champions. After a few minutes, the team ran backstage to collect their white jackets. 11 months of hard work had paid off.
Congratulations, WCHS Cheer!
