ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
April 25 and 26, cheer teams from across America will converge on Orlando, Fla., for a bid invitation cheerleading and dance end of season exclusivity event.
A group from Liberal and the surrounding area called Team Surge from Fusion Athletics will be amongst the cheerleaders in Central Florida for the Prep and Rec Grand Nationals.
Jessica Terrazas, whose daughter Camila is one of the 17 local girls competing in Florida, said Team Surge competed at five events in locations in Oklahoma and Texas to qualify to go to Orlando.
Monday, locals got a sneak peek at the routine the girls will be performing at nationals with a showcase for friends and family at Liberal High School.
Team parents, members and coaches are scheduled to be making their way this week by plane or automobile to Orlando, and Terrazas said the group ranges from ages 7 to 15. This too is their first time competing nationally.
In August, Fusion Athletics will be starting its ninth season at its locations in Liberal, Garden City and Dodge City, and tryouts for girls ages 3 to 18 will soon be taking place at those locations.
“Basically, everybody makes the team,” Terrazas said. “They look at your skill level, and they’ll put you on a team they think you’ll do good in. They do offer tumbling. They also offer dance classes there at the gym.”
Terrazas said Fusion is also looking for sponsors.
“Anybody in the community willing to sponsor our cheer team, we offer sponsorship deals where their logo will be on the back of our T-shirt we wear throughout the year,” she said. “They also put up banners at our showcases or at our local performances we do in either Garden or Dodge.”
Terrazas said parents, coaches and team members are all extra excited due to this being the first time for the Liberal group to compete nationally. Having been with Fusion for two years, she has seen growth in tumbling in that time, as well as other activities.
“We’ve seen more things happening within the gym, more moms and tots and little kids,” she said. “They started their dance studio this year. The gym is really growing in getting the involvement of the community. Not everybody knows the Fusion gym for competitive cheer. I’ve seen it grow just in the time I’ve been there.”
As for what will take place in Orlando, Terrazas said the girls will have a minute and a half to perform their routine on both Saturday and Sunday inside Universal Studios.
“They have to show up on time with hair and makeup done,” she said. “They have to practice beforehand. We have to be there at a certain time. It’s very structured for these girls. Some of them are older. Some of them are younger. Everything is very uniform. They have to understand that. The parents have to understand that. It’s a very disciplined, competitive cheer team we have.”
The local team will be competing against hundreds of teams from across the country, and Terrazas said this is a significant difference from their usual competitions, which only featured about four or five teams.
“This is on a big national scale,” she said. “It’s nothing compared to what they’re used to throughout the year, which are the five little competitions they do.”
Terrazas said judges will consider several aspects of the performance when scoring a team.
“They look at stunts,” she said. “They look at jumps. They look at how uniform they are with their hair, their makeup. hey get points deducted if their stunt falls. They get points deducted if they’re not in sync. That’s what they look at scoring wise.”
Terrazas said some of the older members of Team Spurge have been with Fusion for at least five years, and their passion can clearly be seen.
“You can tell the passion some of these girls have with the way they wear their team name on their shirt every day, how they show up to practice and want to practice, the enthusiasm I see at competitions when they’re ready to go, ready to perform and not only the cheer team, but also the parents in how they enjoy looking at their daughters performing,” she said.
At Team Surge’s fourth competition in Oklahoma City is when Terrazas said the group found out they were going to nationals.
“We had already had a partial paid bid, which only pays half of their ticket to go to Florida, but at this competition, we were really pushing for that paid bid,” she said. “They didn’t tell us about that paid bid until our next practice. We performed. We were named first place, grand champions of our division, and that next practice, they had a whole presentation. The people who put on the show have a whole presentation.”
That presentation was put on TV, and after the local team saw its name pop up on the screen, a bid party took place.
“The girls had cupcakes,” Terrazas said. “We had a sign for them. Coaches had confetti to really wow them and congratulate them. They did it.”
Since the news came out, Terrazas said coaches, parents and team members have been on an emotional roller coaster.
“It goes up and down,” she said. “We were ready for Florida, then not ready for Florida. It’s getting closer, but a couple weeks ago, we were thinking ‘It’s so far away. We have so much to prepare.’”
Fusion coaches are working with other teams that qualified for Florida, so they have departed early for the Sunshine State ahead of their students.
“The coaches will be in Florida for two weeks with other teams in Garden and Dodge,” Terrazas said. “I bet their emotions are high right now trying to get everything ready.”
Terrazas said the paid bid covers Team Surge’s entrance to the competition.
“The cheer team themselves have to pay for their flight, their hotel, their stay, all their travel unless they have sponsors or people who were willing to pay for their travel,” she said. “We had to come up with that.”
Much of the funding that goes into supporting Fusion Athletics comes from raffles, and Terrazas said money also comes from fundraising at the races at Dodge City Days. She said this is for gyms in all three communities.
“Last year, my daughter did a lemonade stand to raise money for that,” she said. “Other parents do other raffles, basket raffles. Mostly, we rely on our sponsors throughout the community.”
With Fusion Athletics not being a well known name locally, Terrazas said support for the team is currently limited to those associated with the team.
“If they know my daughter or if they know the kids, they’ll congratulate them, and they’ll know who they are,” she said.
Even serving as a parent, Terrazas said she loves being a part of the team, and she has witnessed the excitement Camilia has shown in her time with the program.
“She started it two years ago, and her enjoyment for it has grown over the years,” she said. “I love it. I cheered when I was in high school and college. I love that cheer atmosphere.”
Terrazas said her experience as a cheerleader has helped in her role with Team Surge.
“I try to push her to be better, and growing up in cheer, I knew the team aspect of being a cheerleader,” she said. “I try to include everybody. With the team moms, if we’re doing something for the girls, we want to have everybody involved in it. Growing up, I saw team inclusivity was the best to have a good cheer team.”
Terrazas said she and the other team moms are excited for both the upcoming national competition and Season 9 of Fusion Athletics.
“Some of them have cheered longer than my daughter has,” she said. “All the moms are ecstatic, and they can’t wait for next season, which will start right after we get done with our competition.”
