We’ve got spirit, yes we do, we’ve got spirit, how ’bout you?

Spirit was exactly what the Watkins Mill High School Cheerleaders had last week after taking home second place from their county competition. 

The ‘Rines performed at Blair High School against eight other schools and came through with a powerful finish. The teams at the competition included: Magruder, Seneca Valley, Paint Branch, Rockville, Wheaton, Einstein, Springbrook and Kennedy.

The team put in hours of preparation for the competition and their hard work paid off. “It felt amazing [when we won] because I’ve been cheering on varsity all four yearsand it was my first time placing and all the hard work paid off,” senior cheer captain Fatou Drammeh said. 

“We came in knowing we had the routine in our heads, we just had to leave it all on the mat and that’s exactly what we did. There was some competition, but I’m glad we pulled through,”  junior A’shanti Roger said. “We have not placed since 2012 so this is an accomplishment and I’m just so proud of my team.”

The ‘Rines had all the spirit from the crowd that they needed since many students from Watkins Mill came out to support their cheer team to a successful tournament. “I think the competition went very well, our cheerleaders absolutely killed it out there,” senior Markel Grant said. “We had a great support group out there cheering them on.”

The ‘Rines have been working since summer for this win. “We had practice every single day for a few hours after school and we just worked and worked and conditioned and bam. We got second place,” Drammeh said.

The team looks to build off of this victory in the coming years, and instill success in the Watkins Mill cheer program for many years to come.

“Last year we were just a team, but this year I feel like we were more of a family and we all shared the same goal, each and every one of us pulled through and got that goal,” Roger said.