Vista Del Lago students Sharee Mitchell and Autumn Payne, both level five restricted cheerleaders part of the competitive cheer squad Cheer Xperience in El Dorado Hills, CA. Mitchell has been cheering for ten years, and Payne for seven. Cheer Xperience has been around for about six years in the Northern California Area, owned by Coach Sarah Mitchell.

According to Top End Sports, in a list of the top sixty most difficult sports in the world and among the top ten most dangerous sports, according to FoxSports.com, cheer is dangerous business.

“Cheer takes a lot of dedication and hard work. We compete almost every weekend and we have to run each section of the routine over and over during practices until its absolutely perfect,” said Mitchell.

“I don’t think cheer is given enough credit considering all we do,” Payne said.

Consisting of mostly conditioning or running their routine over and over, their average practices are two hours long Tuesday through Thursdays and on Saturdays and Sundays their practices range between 3-4 hours.

On Friday, March 7, 2014 they traveled to Portland, Oregon in an attempt to get a bid for Summit, a national cheer competition taking place in the end of May. Summit is the highest competition for people under eighteen who are not on a World Cheerleading Championship Team. They must take part in multiple competitions before they can be invited.

The best of the best for cheerleading competition teams meet at the mat and battle head to head for the World Cheerleading Championship ring, which every cheerleader aspires to get. To get to this level it involves hard work, determination, and dedication.

Cheer Xperience has been to one bidding offer and their second will take place in Portland. A bidding offer is an invitation and offer for a full paid trip to Worlds. Including Disney World tickets where Worlds is held. There, youth level three, senior four and senior five team will be competing.

With every level comes a set of skills one must master to advance. Level two requirements include a back handspring, level three a tuck, level four a layout, and level five restricted is one twist, and level five regular is two. Mitchell and Payne are both level five restricted cheerleaders.

Next year they hope to send their level five team to the World Cheerleading Championship and like Summit, an invitation is required. Worlds is a competition for teams level five and up and must be twelve and older to compete.

For being as young as they are, Payne and Mitchell have been to at least one hundred competitions in their life and will continue working until they accomplish their goal as a team of going to Worlds.

“My favorite thing about cheer is the whole team aspect of it because if one person doesn’t do what they are supposed to it won’t work,” Mitchell said.

The girls will continue to dedicate their time and effort to cheerleading.

“One day I hope all our hard work pays off and we get the opportunity to go to Worlds and live that dream.” Payne said.