The Pattonville varsity cheer team’s competition at NCA Nationals in Fort Worth, Texas, scheduled for January 24 and 25, was canceled due to extreme weather.

The cheer team was scheduled to compete against schools from across the country at a national cheerleading competition. Athletic Director Jason Sellers and coaches Samantha Wandersee and Makenzie Williams decided to cancel the trip after determining that winter weather conditions would make traveling unsafe.  

“This has changed us in good ways and bad ways. I think we’ve become closer, you know, bonding over this traumatic thing that’s happened,” said Aubrey Wiggins (11).

On Friday, the cheer team would have had their first full floor practice before they took the stage. Even though cheerleaders weren’t able to compete, they made the most out of the cancellation and chose to hang out the next day.

“We all hung out last night. We went to the basketball game and dinner after,” Wiggins said.

More than twenty teams could not compete at nationals this year due to travel issues, whether it was reaching or returning home. This is the first time the team has not been to NCA since 2017. Although they qualified for the competition, the weather wasn’t on their side.

“I feel like this was just something that we couldn’t control. We can’t control the weather, and we can’t predict it, so we can just move forward,” senior captain Imari Young said.