It’s all in the details

Stunts matter.

But so do the smiles. Making sure to take care of both facets in a cheer routine has earned Kingfisher High School another state championship.

KHS won the Class 4A competitive cheer state championship Saturday on the campus of Union High School in Tulsa.

Just 2.6 points separated Kingfisher from fourth-place Washington, meaning every single part of the two-minute routine on the mat at the UMAC held significance.

And that’s what coaches Carma Reagan and Lori Burns have been preaching since taking over the program four years ago.

“Lori and I drill the little things besides hitting stunts and tumbling,” said Reagan.

“Motions technique. Jump technique. Voice and faces. We always say attention to small details is what can help teams like ours stand out.

“We won by 1 point. It’s all about the details.”

Kingfisher actually won by 1.2 points, it was revealed when results were released.

The program’s fourth state championship - but first since 2008 - saw the team earn 265.8 points from judges.

Bristow was the state runner-up with 264.6 while Oklahoma Christian School was third with 263.4 and Washington fourth with 263.2.

Of those four teams, Kingfisher was the first to perform.

“Watching those three teams go out and hit near-perfect routines made the waiting difficult,” Reagan admitted. “I thought my heart was going to pound right out of my chest.”

Once the results were tabulated, the results started to be announced, beginning with fourth place.

Tightly grouped together in a small section in the UMAC stands, the KHS cheerleaders gripped each others hands and bowed their heads, almost in a prayerful trance.

“Washington,” said the announcer, naming the fourth place team.

“The waiting was nerve-racking,” Reagan said. “Lori told me she may get sick. I felt the same.”

Most in attendance felt Washington, Bristow, OCS and KHS were the standout groups with their performances.

“We were just not 100 percent sure in what order,” Reagan said.

Then came the thirdplace team: “Oklahoma Christian School.”

“There were so many emotions leading up to the final announcement,” said senior team member Jaelin Cortes.

Added fellow senior Libbie Barnett: “I was so anxious waiting for them to call out the winner. With each one of the places getting called, I got more and more nervous and excited at the same time.”

Then came time to announce the state runner-up. If the next audible syllable started with a “B” it was almost inevitable that Kingfisher was the state champion.

•••

Reagan has been in this position before.

It was 22 years ago that she coached Deer Creek to the 2001 Class 3A state championship one year after settling for runner-up.

The moment her team was announced as champion was caught on film.

Again, this was 2001, so it wasn’t with an iPhone, rather a camcorder.

“I found the tape in my attic,” said Reagan last week after KHS had won the regional championship.

Tamara Massey, mother of senior cheerleader Anna Massey, found an old VCR in her mother’s home and brought it to Reagan.

“I showed the girls the grainy video at practice (prior to regionals),” she said.

“I am almost 50 years old and I still get chills and a little teary-eyed when I watch it. I wanted the girls to see and hear what it would be like to get their name called on Saturday.

“Those are core memories that they will hold onto for a lifetime.”

•••

A state championship isn’t built in a day, a week, a month or not even necessarily even a year. This one started - at least - four years ago when Reagan and Burns agreed to coach the team, and even before then for several of the cheerleaders.

“Since I was born, cheer has been a huge part of my life,” said Barnett, whose mother Tiffanie is a former coach of the program and older sister Emma was a former KHS cheerleader as well.

“I was always outside of my house doing jumps on the trampoline or working on stunts with my sister, or even the whole family, in the living room.”

Many of the nine seniors were together even before their freshman years.

“We have built a special bond throughout these past four years and even before that,” said Amy Deatherage. “Seven of us seniors competed and won our first competition at Game Day state as seventh graders, so we have been through a lot together.”

As freshmen, sophomores and juniors, this group of seniors helped KHS reach state.

But it never got to the pinnacle.

But Reagan and Burns, who was the coach here when KHS was absolutely at the pinnacle by winning three consecutive state championships from 200608, knew what they were building.

“We may not have had the most talent at state the last few years, but it was only a matter of time,” Reagan said. “By paying attention to the details and working on building stunt and tumbling skills, we became more talented.

“We just needed time to grow.”

The growth came as did an infusion of underclassman talent.

Still, the work had to be done.

For this competitive cheer season, that started in June.

The team gets its routine in June.

“This is a two-day process that overall is around eight hours,” Barnett said. “We have a skill check where our choreographers will see what skills we must put into our routine.

“Then the next day we learn our full routine and start making our goals for competition in September.”

Then came practices. Six days a week for more than three months, all to try to nail a two-minute routine.

“There have been some good days and there have been some bad days ending in tears and frustration,” Deatherage said.

“This is not an easy thing to achieve. It takes hard work, discipline and commitment.”

Reagan and Burns were there to help instill those traits.

“Our coaches believed in us and expected us to show up and do the hard things to perfect our routine,” Deatherage said.

It wasn’t an easy one to perfect.

To give themselves the best chance to win, the coaches worked with choreographers to up the difficulty, meaning a chance to score higher at competition.

Perfecting proved difficult. Despite winning the regional, there were visible mistakes in two of the major stunts.

The degree of difficulty and finishing strong helped KHS win. Only Washington, which won the other regional, had a higher score that day.

The cheerleaders also performed their routine in front of the home crowd during halftime of Kingfisher’s football game against Perkins-Tryon the night before state.

Again, there were mistakes.

“Making those mistakes at regionals and at the Friday night game created a lot of pressure for ‘hitting’ everything on Saturday,” Barnett said.

That’s because - especially once you reach state - there are no adjustments and there are no do-overs.

“The unfortunate part about cheer is that we don’t get any second chances,” Barnett said. “Other sports, for instance, have four quarters to make any changes to their mistakes, where we only have two minutes and one chance.”

Kingfisher took the mat. First stunt. Hit. Second stunt. Hit.

Tumbling passes. Hit.

Third stunt. Hit. Fourth stunt. Hit. “As soon as we hit our four elite stunts, it gave us so much more adrenaline to complete the remainder of the routine,” Barnett said.

As the team finished, there were tears and hugs.

“We felt confident it was one of our better performances,” said Cortes. “We felt like we had a good chance at winning coming off the mat.”

Reagan walked off the mat hugging Barnett.

“Our goal was a clean routine. Keep stunts in the air, hit everything which included tucks, tumbling and stunts,” Reagan said.

“And if we did that, we felt like that would give us the best chance to win.

“So, yes, when they came off, I knew we would be in the mix, if not win.”

But there was still waiting.

OCS, Washington and Bristow all nailed their routines as well.

“Watching all the other teams hit every stunt was very nerve-racking to us,” admitted Cortes.

Barnett was in a group text with members of her family during the other teams’ routines.

“All I could remember while watching the other teams was my sister telling me ‘FROG,’” Barnett said. “Fully Rely On God because that’s all we could do in this moment.”

That and wait, which is what the team was doing with hands clasped and heads bowed.

“Bristow!” was announced as the state runner- up.

A mini-celebration erupted among the KHS cheerleaders and faithful fans in the stands.

“I lost it,” admitted Reagan. “Even though they hadn’t called our name for first yet, deep down I knew.”

Still, Reagan had to gather herself and encouraged her team to do the same as Bristow made its way to the floor to accept its trophy and pose for a picture.

“I was telling the girls to chill because their name hadn’t been called yet,” Reagan said. “I didn’t want to look disrespectful, but the girls knew it also.”

As Bristow made its way off the floor, it came time to announce the state champion.

“Your 2023 Class 4A state champion is….”

Then came the pause for dramatic effect as a hush fell over the UMAC.

“KING-fisher!” The team collectively leapt out of the chairs as they jumped, hugged and cried some more.

“When we heard them say Kingfisher, we were overwhelmed, excited and emotional,” said Cortes.

“The feeling was incredible because we finally did it after all these years.”

Deatherage said it’s a feeling she will “never forget.”

“Every time I watch the routine or the video of them announcing the winner, I get this indescribable feeling,” she said.

That’s exactly what Reagan wanted for her team… the very thing that still gives her chills 22 years after winning for the first time.

“The feeling of having your name called is one these girls will remember forever,” she said. “It’ such an incredible moment.”

Not just for the seniors, but also the juniors, sophomores and freshman of the 20-person team. Without their significant contributions, the seniors wouldn’t have been able to go out on top, said Reagan.

“I think the young ones wanted it for themselves, but also for the seniors,” Reagan said. “They are a talented group of girls and we darn sure wouldn’t have accomplished our goal without them.”

The goal, of course, was to claim that state championship trophy and bring home another banner to hang at KHS.

Thanks, in part, to the small details, the goal was realized for Barnett, who has been around the sport much of her life.

“When they called our name for the 4A state champions, it was more than I hoped for,” she said.

“Even right now, I’m still in shock and it hasn’t hit me yet that this is real.”