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Poplar Bluff cheerleading overcomes illnesses, injuries to reach national semifinals
Editors note: A story on the Poplar Bluff Junior High cheerleaders winning 14th in the nation will appear at a later time.
Britten Edmundson threw up in a clear, plastic ziplock bag.
The Poplar Bluff sophomore cheerleader was on the team bus and said she felt sick. The team didn’t think much of it because everybody felt sick. Then Bailey Edmundson, a junior, said Britten was about to throw up.
There weren’t any vomit bags on the bus, so they ran to her a plastic baggie. She improved afterward, or at least acted like she felt better. She and everyone else on the exhausted, sickly, close-knit cheer team from Poplar Bluff pushed through and accomplished what no Poplar Bluff cheer team had ever accomplished.
They reached the Medium Varsity Division I semifinals of the NHSCC National Championships.
“That was the best performance we’ve ever done in my opinion,” said Poplar Bluff senior Libby Burdin, who competed with a broken tibia she suffered while tumbling two weeks before nationals. “We got off the mat and all the emotions just hit us at once. Everybody was crying tears of joy, honestly. We were so excited and so pumped.”
Burdin started the trip in an airport wheelchair, being pushed through security with six boxes of fresh, assorted donuts on her lap.
“Are those all donuts?” people kept asking, which she would confirm.
A gift from Burdin’s sister, the boxes went down the security line conveyer belt with the rest of the carry-on bags, phones, belts and shoes. The TSA security guard peered into the boxes on their monitor and said “Oh, they really are all donuts on your lap.”
The cheer team couldn’t eat all of them, so Burdin started handing them out to security and whoever else wanted a donut.
“We had so many extras and we were also full that people would randomly take them,” senior Cara Bubanovich said. “We got rid of them pretty quickly.”
It was the first flight for about seven members of the team.
“Probably just going up in the air, that’s scary,” said junior Emma Steffan, who in a pro move did TSA Pre screening and breezed through security. “Taking off, everyone said that your ears are gonna pop, they did but it didn’t hurt. I was fine. I think I overreacted about how scary it was going to be. But it was fun.”
Leaving frigid Missouri, deep in the throws of the polar vortex, for tropical Florida hit the team’s already weakened immune systems hard. There were unknown allergies. “Millions” of tissues were used during the six-day trip. Between two-a-day, practices, stressful competitions and packed hotel rooms, the team kept feeling worse and worse.
“The weeks leading up to Nationals were the toughest that we ever had. Preparing for all the homework we’re going to miss, preparing for this huge competition, and packing, still staying positive, keeping our grades up. It was an insane amount of stress,” junior Madison Pinderski said.
On Feb. 7, they got up and took a bus to their first practice and spent a couple hours refining the same routine they’d been working on since June. There were an estimated 18,000 cheerleaders in Orlando for nationals, screaming, jumping and yelling during their own practices.
“Nerves got the best of them Thursday,” Poplar Bluff coach Stephanie Hillis said. “Those girls got it out of their system. Went back to the second round of practice that morning and my team showed up, got those nerves out and hit everything.”
They hit everything during both practices Friday, as well, and then again during Saturday’s preliminary competition.
“I had the same stunt group between state — where Poplar Bluff finished third — and nationals and the other groups completely changed,” Bubanovich said. “So we had to add people and people had to learn new positions. I would say there’s massive improvement (from state) because we went to state and my stunt unfortunately fell. We got to nationals and when we hit, I was secretly screaming inside.”
The team’s elite stunt involved a flier being put in a load, do a 360-degree turn, put their leg behind them, come down, go back up, start on their left leg, switch to their right, pull a heal stretch, go down, get thrown up into the air and do a spin.
“Then we catch them all and make it look all pretty,” Bubanovich said.
Poplar Bluff performed Saturday at 10:25 a.m. Unlike other sports where you immediately know how many points you scored or what the judges gave you. The Mules had to wait about two hours until all teams performed. It was only then that the semifinalists were announced.
“I didn’t want to sit there that long, but it felt like the longest two hours of my life,” Burdin said. “Our name got called and it was one of the best moments honestly as a cheerleader, just to know that we had just made history for school and that they had never done that before. And I was a part of that and I got to do it with this team.”
Half the teams competing were eliminated in the preliminary round, making Poplar Bluff one of 15 teams in their division to reach the semifinals.
“To keep the energy up, and the injuries down, and keep the attitude level high, it takes a special group of girls,” Hillis said.
Having accomplished their goal, Poplar Bluff competed one more time Sunday, and again had to wait around to hopefully hear their name called.
It wasn’t.
“We didn’t get the news that we were hoping for. But we were still positive about it, because we had still made history,” Burdin said. “And anything after that, like our coach said, was just icing on the cake. We had already met our goal. So we had made that trip worth it.”
Getting to explore Disney World didn’t hurt either.
“We just kind of walked around the parks a lot and we all stayed with each other, which was really cool,” Steffan said. “We didn’t just split up and whatever. We were all with each other and we rode all the rides together and we went and enjoyed the Mickey shaved ice creams and all the expensive food. But it was awesome.”
This was Bubanovich’s 12th trip to the happiest place on earth … and she’ll be going again in June for her senior trip.
Consequently, she turned into the team tour guide.
Where can I meet Mickey Mouse? Ask Cara. Where is that ride? Ask Cara. Team wants to go do a thing somewhere? Follow Cara.
“I walked into Disney. And I’m just like, this is the happiest place. I don’t know. I can’t not smile,” said Bubanovich, whose favorite park is Animal Kingdom because the animals are adorable and her favorite ride is Expedition Everest. “I love Disney. I’ve obviously been a few times, I plan on working there in college. So I was the tour guide, but I loved every minute of it. Because I was so happy. I’m happy I’m making you happy.”
While she was the tour guide, Burdin turned into the team taxi. Still hobbled with a broken leg, Burdin rented a scooter she nicknamed The Lambo, short for Lamborghini, regardless of the fact that its only two speeds were turtle and rabbit. People put their cargo in the basket and hitched a ride when they could.
“It had a horn and everything,” said Burdin, whose favorite park was Hollywood Studios and favorite ride was Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
At the end of the week, organizers rented out Magic Kingdom from 11 p.m. until 2 a.m. for all the cheerleaders and coaches. There was a dance party and some of the rides were open, allowing everyone to enjoy part of Disney World without the massive crowds.
Then it was time to come home to a somewhat less frigid Southeast Missouri. The team bus rolled into Poplar Bluff about 1 a.m. Tuesday morning. Tired, exhausted, and with some of the team still feeling sick, there was little interest in going to school Tuesday. But it was senior night. If they didn’t go to school they didn’t get to perform.
So one more time, with the help of some naps, they pushed through and performed.