*Texas Southern University’s cheerleaders are now the first HBCU to win a national collegiate cheerleading title.
As ESSENCE reports, the Tigers placed “first in their division in the Cheer Spirit Rally competition at the NCA & NDA College National Championship” last week in Daytona Beach, Florida.
“They put their hearts into their performance every time they perform,” the team’s head coach, Shontrese Comeaux, said. “It doesn’t matter how hard we practice, but when it’s time to perform, they put it all out on the mat or all out on the field.”
Comeaux called willing a national title at the National Cheer Association Championship a “surreal” moment, chron.com reports.
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“It’s surreal…It’s something that we aimed for that was always the goal to win nationals, but to be the first Black team and the first HBCU cheer team it comes with a lot. Fifty percent of me was confident the other 50 percent was like, ‘oh my god, we really did it,’” Comeaux said, ESSENCE reports.
“This win for me just symbolizes in one word: growth,” Comeaux said, according to NBC News. “Growing the program, having incoming cheerleaders that are willing to grow with the team and growing in the direction of the vision that we want to take the team.”
Comeaux said her squad “put their hearts into their performance every time they perform.”
She added, “It doesn’t matter how hard we practice, but when it’s time to perform, they put it all out on the mat or all out on the field.”
National championship letterman jackets, along with honorary rings, will be awarded to the cheer team and highlighted at a forthcoming ceremony at the university.
Per ESSENCE, TSU was one of ten HBCUs to compete in the National Cheer Association Championship, and was “the only one to take home a title,” posting “raw and performance scores of 96.1 and an event score of 95.5875, beating second-place Niagara University by nearly 11 points in the Cheer Spirit Rally category for Division I schools.”
2023 Spirit Rally National Champions ????
Congratulations to @ texassoutherncheer (IG) on becoming the first HBCU team to win the national cheerleading championship!! #TSUProud #TexasSouthern #TSU #TSUCheer pic.twitter.com/BnykOZi15L— TSU Proud ???? (@TxsuProud) April 7, 2023
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