Escalon’s youth football Outlaw Varsity cheerleaders turned in an outstanding performance at their last cheer competition.

“Sunday, January 11, we competed at UC Davis. We placed first and second in two separate categories,” said head coach Jeannie Moeller.

The packed competition had over 90 teams battling it out.

“Our Outlaw cheerleaders were the only team chosen to receive the congeniality award. This is given to the team who showed outstanding sportsmanship and encouragement for other teams,” noted Moeller. “As their head coach, I could not have been more proud of these young ladies, it was a huge honor.”

Along with the special Congeniality award, the varsity cheer girls took first place in division 13 performance cheer, level 3 and second place in division 13, show cheer, level 3.

“Performance cheer is a ‘chant’ with props and words that involves the crowd,” Moeller explained. “The show cheer is more of a halftime performance with music. Both are dance and stunting. The level is the difficulty of stunting, and we chose to perform both routines at the most difficult level for this competition.”

No other teams had a higher level than 3 at this competition, added Moeller, and the division is age, 13 and under.

“We had 20 varsity cheerleaders return from our regular season and they were coached by myself, assistant coach Gorette Dobbins and our junior coach Sydney Moeller,” said the head coach. “These ladies gave up time at Thanksgiving break and Christmas break to get in extra practices.”

Moeller said all the work and effort was worth it, with some hard earned honors coming for the girls.

“We would like to thank our community library for allowing us a place to practice for this competition,” she added. “Congratulations to our Escalon Outlaws cheerleaders.”