This year, one performance will decide cheer title

The Illinois cheerleading championships are down to one day -- and everything will ride on one performance.

Alarmed by the weather and the travel conditions, the Illinois High School Association canceled Friday's preliminary cheerleading finals.

So, the cheerleading championships will come down to one performance for each of the 100 squads today at U.S. Cellular Coliseum in downstate Bloomington.

Awards will be given out at the end of this morning's small and medium school competition; and this evening at the end of the large and coed division contest.

"For some of the teams that would have left today, we felt it would have been too dangerous," said John Martin, a member of the IHSA cheerleading advisory committee, and the Barrington High School athletic director.

Of IHSA-sanctioned sports, only gymnastics and competitive cheerleading have a preliminary and finals format.

In cheerleading the top 10 squads from the four divisions advance to the finals. In this revised format, teams have only one shot at it, and a 3½-minute shot, at that.

"It totally changes everything," said Jeff Siegal, coach of the two-time defending champion Elk Grove High School coed team.

"Whereas we would have had a chance to look at our scores after prelims, and see where we ranked, now we have just one shot.

"And since we're the first team to out there," Siegal added, "we have to hope that our score holds up."

Stevenson High School's squad is in search of their first state title after more than 20 years of qualifying for both the IHSA and Illinois Cheerleading Coaches' Association competitions.

With Friday suddenly open, they worked out in a rented banquet space.

"We're trying to stay focused and not get too distracted by all of this," said coach Jill Freitag. "Cabin fever is the biggest thing I'm battling right now."

All of which makes today's competition as tight as ever, with a huge, screaming crowd expected. U.S. Cellular Coliseum seats 6,000, and last year's event sold 10,000 tickets for both days of action. Tickets are $10 for today's session.

Officials with the Bloomington-Normal Area Convention & Visitors Bureau see it as a boon as well. They were expecting as many as 7,000 visitors to the area for the state competition, who would pump up to $750,000 into the local economy.