TDHS Cheer Team Takes Home State Title

Top (L to R) Gabriella Haskins, Lanie Dirks, Lily Hamm, Katelyn Vassar, Arian Acevedo, Elena Cardosi, Meli Avila

Bottom (L to R) Madeline Harrison, Brooke Abrams, Natalie Wollam, Amy Hernandez, Emily Adams

By Xavier Orion Olaez

After a challenging season during a world pandemic with many changes along the way, The Dalles Riverhawks cheer team has won a state championship.

The team learned about their victory on Sunday, May 16th at 8 PM, as it was announced via a livestream. It was a moment of excitement, relief, and tears as the team celebrated in Jim Taylor’s room at the high school.

The team competed for the 5A Traditional Non-Building title against West Albany, Lebanon, and Redmond. 

Through the course of the season, the team had to adjust to having a new routine every week. They were setback with injuries, COVID, or just the inability to make it to practice and competitions. That made it quite difficult to stick with one routine. Yet head coach Kelsey Wallace and assistant coach Jessica Rodda were able to figure out what they wanted in the final competition and the team executed it.

“We did not perform the same routine back to back all season,” said Coach Wallace.

The season was a tough one due to many reasons. The schedule was completely different. The state championship is usually in February, but due to the pandemic, it was this month. Coach Wallace said she didn’t even think there was going to be a season. And once a decision was made to go ahead, they were only given two weeks to prepare for the season at the end of February. It was also a lot harder because in past years you could scout other teams, but this year you couldn’t because everything was virtual.

Riverhawks performing their state championship winning routine on Saturday, May 15th.

The team was led by their two senior Tumble-inas Emily Adams and Ellie Cardosi. I asked Emily Adams what her first thought was when she heard the team's name called out as champions and she said, “I thought all of our hard work finally paid off.”

This is the first state championship under Coach Wallace’s tenure. Her teams came in second in 2016, ‘17, ‘19, and ‘20.

This was their first year in the Traditional Non-Building as in the past they were Co-Ed. But unfortunately, the boy on their team decided to go a different path and not cheer this year.

“It was a big culture change for our team,” said Coach Wallace. The team still came out and did phenomenal, bringing a championship pennant to The Dalles High School and making the community proud. 

To watch the entire routine click the following link: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CO9cLkkHxnw/?utm_medium=copy_link