By Alex Bahena ’19
On Feb. 2, The Pritzker cheerleaders had their final competition of the season at Butler College Prep. The reigning defending champions competed against multiple schools from the Noble Network such as, Rauner College Prep, UIC College Prep, Butler College Prep, Comer College Prep, and Johnson College Prep.
It’s rare when a team demonstrates a long period of success, due to the amount of work that goes into winning. Winning a championship can be seen as luck at times, but Pritzker managed to pull that off for five consecutive years. They were hoping for this to be the sixth year in a row to bring home the first place championship.
The Jaguars were feeling confident going into their performance due to the support of the fans and by placing 2nd place city wide competition a few weeks prior. The Jaguars went out to their wonderful supporters with smiles. The Pritzker fans were happy to see the reigning five time champions take the mat.
After a beautiful performance with no point deductions, the Jaguars left the mat with confidence and gave each other hugs in the back. Senior Josines Martinez believes that as a team, they did great. She said, “While performing we all were having so much fun and gave it out all, and after we came off the competition mats we all were so proud of each other and happy with our last competition.”
After the judges had made a decision, all the schools were brought back out. Each of the schools seniors were acknowledged and given a rose before the winners were announced. (Seniors mentioned in the bottom).
They started by announcing the winning JV squad, which was UIC College Prep. After, the varsity winners were announced.
The MC announced that UIC placed third. Then the MC announced the 2nd place winner. In a matter of seconds, what was joy and smiles from the Jaguars turned into silence and sadness. Pritzker was announced as the 2nd place winner, which broke the team’s heart. Sadly, the five year dynasty of placing first came to an unfortunate end with Pritzker placing 2nd place for the first time ever. Martinez said, “My feeling about the results was honestly bummed. We were expecting to keep our winning streak to lead up to six consecutive years of winning first place, and that did not happen,” she added, “regardless of the outcome the team is still proud of each other for how we did and for having a great season.”
The Jaguars kept great sportsmanship and applauded the Lynx from Butler College Prep as they were announced the winners of the competition. Senior, Victor Dejesus said, “After five years of consecutive wins, it would make sense for a team to build up their game as well, but we are all happy for the winning team because I know it’s a great feeling.”
After the award ceremony, the team got hugs from their loving spectators. While the Jaguars did not win, they had nothing to be disappointed about. They worked very hard at practice, and it was shown in their performance.
Looking back in her time in cheerleading, Martinez said, “Being a senior now and looking back at my past three years of cheerleading, I have grown so much. It was a great four years of cheerleading that taught me so much about myself and about teamwork.”
Dejesus added, “These past few years of being a cheerleader have been a great experience. Joining cheer made me realize there is so much difficulty in it requires strength, endurance, and energy. The cheer team is like a new family every year, when you spend so much time with the same people every day for three months, you grow strong relationships with many people.”
Thanks to the cheerleaders for a wonderful season. Here are a few shoutouts to the seniors on the cheer squad. Andres Orihuela, Kelvin Salgado, Ruben Guzman, Josines Martinez, Loribeth Godinez, Victor DeJesus, Katherine Rayyan, Kenya Uribe, Paola Diaz, Priscilla Bueno, Mia Diaz, and manager Jason Mejia.
