The Panther Cheer Club of Alexandria competed last month at the American Masters Championship in Baltimore, Md., hosted by Varsity Brands.
The athletes, all of whom are middle school students at Carl Sandburg Middle School, wowed the crowd and judges, taking home a team national championship trophy, as well as championship jackets for each athlete.
Coaches Anna Diefendorf, Ann Larkin, and Kelly Larkin, stated that the team worked hard this year to go from a team with very limited stunting and other skills to a team that is now performing skills that would be characterized as level 2 and 3 skills pursuant to the all-star skill level division guidelines, which guidelines rate skills from difficulty levels 1 through 5. The Panther Cheer Club is operated by the Panther-Wildcat Spirit Club, Inc., is a Virginia not-for-profit corporation (owned by the coaches) dedicated to providing students at Carl Sandburg Middle School of all skill levels with a program to attend after school in which to learn and practice the sport of performance cheerleading.
See http://www.panthercheerclub.org.