Cheer Team Heading to Florida to Compete in UCA College Nationals

HARRISONBURG, Va. - The James Madison cheerleading program is set to compete at the 2022 University Cheer Association College Nationals in Orlando, Fla. from January 14-16.

The team will be sending a co-ed team, an all-girl team as well as Duke Dog to compete in three separate competitions, which take at the Walt Disney World Resort.

"It is important that the whole program is able to represent with all three teams that make up the spirit program for JMU on the national level," Head Coach Tony Morris said. "People get to see us on game days, on sidelines and they see us in the community, but to be able to represent our sport on the competitive end and help bring a spotlight to JMU is a huge deal. Using cheer as that avenue and getting that support from athletic administration to be able to do what we do is amazing."

The co-ed team will be competing in the Game Day division, which consists of three components: fight song, situational sideline and game day timeout. Both semifinals and finals will occur on Friday, Jan. 14.

Freshman Lucas Gabriel Mugica touched on his experience during his first year of cheerleading.

"I am used to combat sport, and this is the one sport where I have had to bond with someone like my flyer and all these other people who have helped me learn these skills, like a tuck, which I have never been able to do before," Mugica said. "I have had to learn how to face my fears, which is probably my biggest accomplishment I could get being in this program. Heading into nationals, I am going to take that moment and that experience with me for the rest of my life."

The all-girl team will be competing in the traditional division, where teams will be judged based on stunts, pyramid, tumbling and sideline cheer. They will be competing on Saturday, Jan. 15.

"I am really excited because this is our first year going as an all-girl team to UCA College Nationals," senior Kamryn Koller said. "We are representing our team and becoming the first all-girl team at JMU. It is really special for us to take the mat as a team and be united and try our best."

Duke Dog will be competing in the Open Mascot Division where it will perform a skit against other schools with props. This is the first time Duke Dog has competed since 2013.

When asked about the competition, a member of the Duke Dog team said, "I am most looking forward to going to Nationals and being able to perform. Usually with Duke Dog, we interact with people and on the fly, whereas this is something that has been planned out and they can see our creativity."

Another member stated, "I am excited to see it come together, because it has definitely been a process. I know a lot of people who do it and have watched videos of people who have done it in prior years have these giant teams, but I think it is cool to see us come together and make something really cool as a smaller team."

The UCA College Nationals will be live streamed on VarsityTV and can be viewed by using your FloSports login.

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