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Gators Overcome Odds To Win

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By CRISTINA LEDRA

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 28, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - The Land O' Lakes cheerleading team walked into the inaugural state meet in Boca Raton not knowing what or who to expect.

By the time the Gators left, they were state champions in the small co-ed division and by the end of the high school sports season, they were the only team in any sport to bring home a state title to Pasco County.

"It was amazing that they were able to come together and perform so beautifully and have such a great showing for Land O' Lakes High School," Gators coach Celisa Cook said. "I think that's one of the things I'm most proud of is that they were able to represent their school so beautifully."

This was no simple road for Land O' Lakes.

The team was forced to change its routine only a couple of weeks before the state meet to comply with the judging standards of the competition.

"They didn't like their cheer," Cook said. "They thought it was boring. It's not our style but the knew that's what they had to do and I think that was the hardest thing for them was to execute a cheer that they thought was boring because they don't really care for that style and I told them 'Your job is to go out and sell it' and they did.

"We made it fun and it was something we weren't sure we'd enjoy and when we actually went out and did it, it was better than they thought it was going to be."

The whole experience had a surreal quality to it. In addition to the unfamiliarity of the first state meet and having to change their routine, the Gators also did not get much a chance to see what they were up against.

"For us to be backstage and not really see anybody that we were performing against, you see some squads and you go 'wow, they really looked good' and for us not to have anything to compare to because we haven't done anything like before, it was a total shock that they were able to win. It was phenomenal," Cook said.

Land O' Lakes beat 19 teams to win the state title. Of the 20 team in the small co-ed division, seven advanced to the finals.

The Gators competed with 24 cheerleaders, two of which were boys and had one other cheerleader that was hurt and could not compete.

Land O' Lakes loses eight seniors from this year's team.

"Every time we go somewhere I always tell them that I want to win but I only do that to get them in the right mindset but a couple days before we went down there, we had to redo the whole routine and I actually got really nervous because I wasn't really sure what we were going to be competing against," Cook said. "So for them at the last minute to still be putting on finishing touches and actually execute it, I couldn't be more proud."

LAND O' LAKES ROSTER

Samantha Adamo

Meagan Barto

Savanna Campbell

Monique Clayton

Briana Denicourt

Mallory Dewhurst

Crystelle Douglas

Aerial Emery

Sierra Gilliland

Chelsea Hale

Kayla Hensley

Samantha Howell

Desiree Izquiredo

Ashley Johnson

Kody Kuhl

Kirstan Lane

Akaylee Larson

Taylor Mock

Christopher Perrone

Elizabeth Piurowski

Rachel Simons

Courtney Tumbarello

Chrissy Walls

Milena Wallace

Kelsey Whitaker

Lauren White

Coach: Celisa Cook

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