Moses Lake cheer team heading to state

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake High School cheer team returned victorious from competition at North Central High School in Spokane.

The 24-member team competed against other Eastern Washington high school teams last Saturday during the cheer and dance competition.

The Moses Lake team won the grand champion trophy for their high overall score of 198 points during the event.

"The one-footed stunts get the most points," says tumbling coach Toby Black. "We make the kids do everything: some of them tumble, some of them dance, some of them fly, but we try to get them to do everything."

Teams must receive at least 195 points to qualify for the state competition.

"When you've got 24 kids on one team trying to get the same outcome, it's pretty great," Black says.

Only Moses Lake and two other teams received high enough scores during last week's event to attend the state competition set for Jan. 22.

"I think their stars were all aligned and they did everything they were supposed to do," says Black.

The team also placed first in the "large co-ed team" category.

"These kids are very talented and very dedicated to what they're doing." Black says. "They did three practices a day last week trying to get it all figured out."

The team's head coach is Mikey Carlile and assistant coaches are Toby Black and Kylie Buttery.

Senior captains include Carlos Avila for the stunt crew, and Kira Samuels and Samantha Fina for the cheerleaders.

Junior captain is Emily Villifana.