Cheer and dance teams bring energy to state

Being the underdog in a competition is never easy, especially when the other teams are simply so much larger in terms of personnel.

That was the uphill struggle the local cheer and dance squads faced during the New Mexico state spirit championships March 21-22 at the Pit in Albuquerque.

And the results, while predictable, did not exactly tell the whole story.

SOCORRO

Perched at the base of the Pit ramp can be a lonely spot for athletes waiting to perform. But it is also what they have been working toward all season.

“Standing at the bottom of the ramp is like a big adrenaline rush for you,” said Warriors junior dancer Sienna Bunning. “Everything hits you right there and it’s very exciting. It’s also very nerve wracking.”

Nerve wracking indeed as she had just three teammates by her side. Still, Socorro performed well, said her mom and coach Stephanie Bunning.

“They came out and gave their full energy and finished their routines strong,” the coach said. “Even if something went off a little bit, we just kept on moving so we did really well.”

The Warriors finished 10th in Class 1A-4A with 139.17 points, trailing winner Hope Christian, which finished with 175.93.

“I think we had a great season,” coach Bunning added. “Everyone worked really hard and we had a lot of fun. I’m grateful for everyone’s dedication and their love for dance. They did an amazing job. It was a fun weekend.”

The Warriors tried to make up for a late start to the season by participating in a number of competitions leading up to state.

“It’s definitely been a learning curve,” coach Bunning said. “We got a late start. We just kind of took off with it and kept on running. We had an unusual season with a quite a few competitions so we traveled more than normal for different competitions.”

And that, in of itself, was good for the team members.

“The girls enjoyed it,” coach Bunning said. “”They had a lot of fun going to the different schools and getting different feedback from different judges.”

With one of the team members being a senior, the squad will be looking for participants for the coming season when tryouts come up soon.

“It’s definitely a struggle,” Sienna Bunning said of the low numbers, adding she hopes to encourage more athletes to try out for next season. “It’s a very enjoyable sport. That’s why I like dance is because you can have fun doing it. It’s a good way of expressing yourself and your feelings. It’s a good, creative expression.”

MAGDALENA

After six seasons at the helm of the Steers cheer team, coach Anissa Ritter is hanging up her pom-poms, using the state meet as her swan song.

“It’s definitely bittersweet,” she said. “It hasn’t fully hit me yet. When we don’t have any practices or anything going on, it will really hit me. It’s been an incredible ride and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be able to spend time with these girls and these families and represent them.”

Magdalena scored 117.1 points in cheer, finishing 16th, but Ritter said that was misleading.

“I was very, very proud of my girls,” she said. “They worked so hard. They did their absolute best. They had fun. They have so much to be proud of.”

Officials, however, were unkind to the Steers.

“The judges were very harsh,” Ritter said. “We got scored very low on a couple of things that we had previously scored very high on. I’m not sure what was going on. Several teams throughout New Mexico in the past few days commented on social media that the cheer judges, well it wasn’t quite what anyone expected.”

Still, finishing off the season with what Ritter felt was a strong performance is all that matters.

“We were pushing our girls and expressing to them that they are good enough to be out here with these bigger schools,” she said. “It’s okay. The fact that they went out there at all is huge and that speaks so much more to their tenacity and their dedication to doing something that they love.”

As for leaving the team, Ritter said her husband got a job in Carlsbad so they are moving across the state.

“This whole performance this past weekend was a huge deal for me,” she said. “Not only did we wrap 2024-25 season, it wrapped up this chapter of my life as a coach.”

It was quite the journey, and she actually laughed when first asked to take over the team six years ago, Ritter said.

“I didn’t know anything about cheer when I first started,” she recalled. “I researched and I YouTubed and I networked and I learned so much over the last six years and I came to love the sport. I have so much respect for the sport itself and I really had a blast. I got to coach my own daughters. It’s really been fantastic. I will always and forever hold this time near and dear to my heart and cherish the memories I’ve made over the past six years.”