Herndon Varsity Cheer Hopes to Take District Championship Tonight

The Herndon High School varsity cheer team will take to the mats tonight (Oct. 25) in district finals at Chantilly High School.

Coach Jenny Goff said the season has been going amazing so far.

“These kids are coming off of a very strong year from last season where we lost 14 seniors,” Goff said. She said 20 team members compete on the mat and only five returned this year who had actually competed before.

“We took in 15 people that just did not have the experience but have the heart and drive and they worked really hard to become a team and to show the entire district that it’s not a rebuilding year for us,” Goff said.

She said she is very happy with how the season is going and is pleased with and proud of her team. She said they were expected to be the underdogs this year but have showed up to the mat and refused to let that happen.

The biggest challenge for Herndon cheer this year was that more than half the team had never cheered before, let alone taken part in competition, Goff said. She said there are also six boys on the team and only one had cheer experience.

Beyond perfecting the team’s cheer skills, many of its members also had to learn the cheer vocabulary and the Herndon way of cheerleading, Goff said.

Tonight Goff hopes her team will come home as district champions again.

“I always tell the team not to compete against the other teams and only to compete against themselves,” Goff said. She said their goals tonight are to have zero deductions and no regrets.

“I just want them to go out there and not only perform the routine, but also have fun,” Goff said. “They definitely deserve it, and you know it’s up to the judges ultimately, but if they leave the mat feeling like they’ve achieved something than we’ve done our job.”  

The best part of this season so far for Goff has been seeing the team develop and become a family, she said. “They call themselves family,” she said. “That’s something that’s really difficult to do in a month and a half.”

And just like family they’ve had to work through their differences, learn to get along and become each other’s support system, she said.

In addition to succeeding at district finals, Goff said she also wants to keep the respect the team has gained in the region as a well-established cheer program. “They’re representing Herndon well,” she said.

The school is also behind the team providing a lot of support, and it’s not only the staff and faculty, but also the students, which was a difficult following to earn, Goff said.  

She said having boys on the team, there was potential for their classmates to be negative or skeptical about males participating in a predominantly female-oriented sport, but the school’s students have backed the team.

“Herndon cheer has really started setting new trends and our students have really stood behind them 100 percent,” Goff said. “It’s been wonderful.”

Goff’s two goals for the team at this point in the season are to earn the district title and make it to the state championships. “It’s going to be tough but this team is very capable and I believe in them.”