LORETTO, PA - For the first time since 2019, the Red Flash returned to Daytona Beach for the NCA (National Cheerleaders Association) College National Championship. This 2022 year was the largest NCA has seen to date with 435 teams. That includes All Girl (up to 20 girls), Small Coed (up to 4 males) and Large Coed (up to 11 males) in Intermediate (generally high school level skills) or Advanced (collegiate level skills) categories from Junior Colleges through Division IA Schools. Your Red Flash competed in the Advanced All Girl Division I category with 7 other teams. Saint Francis (at 2,200 enrolled students) represented the smallest school in their category vying up against teams with over 35,000 enrolled students.

After the preliminary competition on Day 1 was moved indoors due to heavy thunderstorms, the Red Flash had a solid performance. Many schools were not prepared for this move as many factors came into account such as performing on a stage versus an arena floor, extended warm-up time but decreased break after warm-ups as well as the dark atmosphere compared to the bright outside sunshine. It was fair across the board because all teams had to deal with the same challenges. The Red Flash came out with 1.75 points in deductions including a legality violation in a pyramid.

Going into finals on day 2 the Red Flash were seated in 8th place. Happy with their performance, the Red Flash already reached their goal of hitting 73 points on the scorecard. They earned a 74.9 raw score before deductions which dropped it to 73.15. Their goal on Day 2 was to minimize those deductions which would improve the overall event score. At NCA College Nationals, the Day 1 score is worth 20% and Day 2 score is worth 80% of the total event score which translates into a percentage.

Excited that the weather had past, Day 2 was moved to its original location outside on the Daytona Beach Bandshell. The performance order was determined by rankings on Day 1, which put the Red Flash on the floor first. We were ready! Coach Anderson said, "Perform for your future self. We already hit our goal, so go out there and make yourself proud." That's just what the team did! Although we got the same raw score of 74.9, we only had .25 in deductions bringing our score to a 74.65. Calculating the averages of Day 1 and 2 equaled out to an event percentage of 82.60 for the Red Flash.

We knew that we were not going to win Nationals in this division this year. Four of the eight teams competing in the Advanced All Girl Division I category had won this National Championship in the last five years. While this was our first year back in three years and eight of our members never competing in cheer, it was always our goal to hit that 73 points (which Coach who has judged high school nationals determined to be our achievable mark). Our skill difficulty just wasn't there to be a competitive force. However, that is how you build a foundation. Our team was clean and confident going into the weekend. We set a standard for future Red Flash teams. The championship is definitely motivation to work harder next year starting by increasing our practice time from 4 hours per week to 6 hours.

The Red Flash Cheer Team is considering moving to the Small Coed Division next year (which is also very competitive). Tryouts are slated for April 22-24 which gives team members plenty of time to hit summer goals prior to camp in the fall. Lookout for this program as the Red Flash are motivated and thirsty to show the nation what we can do on the National stage again. As always, thank you for your continued support.