Members of the Butler High School coed competitive cheer team display the third-place trophy won at the National Cheerleading Championships, which were held April 23-25.

BUTLER TWP — Last year was disappointing for the Butler High School competitive cheerleading team on the national stage.

This year, the goal was simple: redemption.

“It was just a rough year,” said Butler coach Marianne Miller. “We didn't ever make it out of (preliminaries) last year because of so many mistakes.”

So, the coed small division team, led by its seven seniors — Kassie Meyer, Nadia Hindman, Kendall Atkinson, Keith Young, Aleena Hutchens, Emma Stewart and Brynne Shay — set out to eliminate the mistakes that plagued them so much last season.

“Not everybody came back — we had a couple kids who didn't,” Miller said. “But the ones who did come back, they never wanted to feel like that again. Last year they worked really hard but it just didn't click for them.”

It clicked this campaign in large part because the returning members learned from what went awry in 2020.

“Last year, we weren't very close as a team and when it came to nationals, you could just tell that nobody was really prepared for how big of a competition it was. It was very upsetting,” Hutchens said. “Thjs year, we basically said as seniors we have to make sure that doesn't happen again. We made sure everyone felt included.”

Just to get back to the National Cheerleading Championships in Orlando last weekend, the Golden Tornado had to place second at the WPIAL championships and second at the PIAA championships.

At nationals, Butler avenged the poor performance from the season before, executing two perfect routines to place third.“We had zero point deductions,” Hindman said. “Hitting both of those routines perfect, that almost means more to me than the place we got. I was happy with wherever we placed because we walked off the mat doing the best we could have done and there was nothing else that we could do.”Hutchens said finishing third and doing it with perfect routines was vindication.“It was probably one of the best feelings in the world,” she said. “You could tell everyone was having fun. It was very satisfying to say the least to finish out my career with Butler cheer that way.”Butler has had a history of doing well on the national level in coed competitive spirit.Four years ago the team placed 12th. The next year, the Tornado finished seventh before the disappointing competition last season.A third-place finish was a thrill.“We have very, very strong leadership from the seniors this year,” Miller said. “We just have kids who are very dedicated t the program, especially to stick through it with COVID.”While no member of the team tested positive for the coronavirus, members of the team were quarantined on three occasions because of contact tracing.The disruption, though, didn't deter Butler.“We we very, very luck that we had ... the support system for us to be able to travel to state and travel to nationals,” Miller said.Butler's routines at nationals didn't have the level of difficulty of some of the other teams competing, but the Golden Tornado executed flawlessly.“We're competing against teams that have been coed for 20 years,” Miller said. “We've been doing this for four. We're competing against teams from places in the heart of Kentucky and Tennessee; Those placing breed boy cheerleaders. So for us being in only our fourth year and placing in three of the four and finishing third this year, I mean it's incredible.”Hindman said this season was far more rewarding than she ever thought possible.It made the struggles of last year almost worth it, she said.“It gave us so much more of a sense of accomplishment and pride because we went through all this stuff as a team and we stayed together as a family,” Hindman said. “We support each other and we made it through it together. We came out on top, which is all you can ask for.”Hindman said she and her teammates also take a lot of pride in their craft.So what goes into being a competitive cheerleader?“Everything,” Hindman said. “Your time,. Your dedication. Your strength. There's not a single part of my body that I don't use to execute the skills I need. The tumbling. The stunting. Everything. So, really, when you go into cheer, you're dedicating everything to it.”