Craig Daily Press / Moffat County all-star cheer team to compete in Nationals

The Thunder performs a Level 4 Pyramid Switch-over-lib with the first-place trophy the team won at the Rocky Jam in Denver. The team travels to compete in the national championships in Las Vegas the last weekend of March. Enlarge photo — Photo by Hans Hallgren

By John Vandelinder

February 14, 2008

Craig — Two minutes and 30 seconds.

That’s it.

No second chances, just one shot at glory is all they get.

This is the pressure faced by the members of the Moffat County all-star cheer team each time they compete.

The year-round travel team, based out of Gymstar Fun N Fit Gymnastics, practices two times per week with the aforementioned 2:30 as its only opportunity to impress the judges at its events.

Last weekend in Denver the team did just that.

The Thunder, as the team is called, captured first place in the “Rocky Jam,” an event featuring teams from across the western United States.

“It feels really good to win,” 12-year-old team member Ashley Wells said. “We practice really hard. It’s awesome that all of our hard work paid off.”

The team consists of more than 20 girls ages 6 to 18, many of whom have been cheering for most of their lives.

“It rocks,” 12-year-old Taylor Brenner said of winning. “But, we still need to perfect the way we move. We have national finals coming up, and we can still get better.”

The team travels to Las Vegas for the national finals the last weekend in March.

“I think we are just about ready,” 13-year-old Isadora Hitz said. “We have had lots of practices. It feels like we do our routine about 500 times a day.”

The routine the Thunder performs is arranged and choreographed by team coach Jannie Brenner and assistant Debi Schmidt.

It’s an acrobatic routine full of jumps, flips, twists and turns. It’s set to music edited together by Brenner, with a little input from the team.

“I do the music, and they tell me if they like it or not,” Brenner said. “It would cost us between $500 and $1,500 dollars to have an outsider do it. We don’t have that kind of money in a small town like Craig.

“It’s a small town, but with a big dance team.”

Taylor Schmidt, an 11-year-old flyer on the team — a flyer is one who gets thrown up in the air — knows what’s at stake come national finals time.

“I’m already starting to get butterflies,” she said. “I know we are good, but that doesn’t stop me from getting nervous.”