By Beth Jones
Jensen Williams has come full circle. The former Fernandina Beach High School cheerleader has been coaching the last four seasons at her alma mater, and on Saturday, she will witness the squads return to competition.
“Just now this year, we’re starting to get back to competing again,” Williams said. “It’s very nice to be able to bring that back.”
Williams, 27, graduated from FBHS in 2016.
“It feels very rewarding,” she said. “It’s nice to see it from the other way.”
Williams has been building the program since she took it over.
“This is the first year we have a full squad for both varsity and junior varsity,” she said. “We have 16 on JV and 17 on varsity, so that’s very exciting. My first year, we only had enough for one squad, so we couldn’t differentiate so that was really nice to be able to do that this year.”
Both squads compete Saturday at West Nassau High School. It’s a Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) competition.
“We’re required to compete in four competitions before regionals,” Williams said.
The Pirate cheerleaders will compete in another event at West Nassau, one at Baker County and one at Clay.
“We would like to host one in the future, but we needed to see how it worked first,” Williams said.
The cheerleaders have their eyes on the prize in their return to competition.
“Jan. 17 is region, and then state is the next week,” Williams said. “Depending on how we place in regional will determine if we go to state or not.”
The squads learned their routines in early October, and both will perform stunts, jumps, dances, two sets of partner stunts and a pyramid on Saturday. Varsity will also be tumbling.
“I have a few gymnasts,” Williams said. “I have a few girls that do all-star cheer, as well. So, they’re doing double the amount of the rest of the girls, which is just crazy to me on top of school.”
There is a mix of experience between the two squads this year, Williams said.
“We have a lot of girls who’ve cheered since they started walking,” she said. “My varsity is more experienced. My JV is very novice, but that’s OK. Sometimes it’s easier when they’re novice, because you can teach them the way you want them to do and not the way they’ve done it with someone else.”
Williams said she didn’t compete in FHSAA events while at FBHS.
“We competed against all-star teams, so it was very different,” Williams said. “It definitely levels the playing field.”
The cheerleaders jump from one season to the next and will be soon cheering on the basketball team.
“We do it all,” Williams said.
And, they spend 10 months out the year preparing for it.
“We start tryouts end of March, beginning of April, and we get ready for the spring game in May,” Williams said. “We normally give them June off, but this year we had camp in June.”
Camp was held at FBHS, with two days per squad.
“We did a lot of stunts,” Williams said. “The girls learned a lot of new stunts. We did a lot of team bonding, and they taught us a few dances and cheers.”
The cheerleaders devote a lot of time to hone their skills.
“We practice, during school, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and then Wednesdays off for doctors’ appointments,” Williams said. “It’s early release, and people have church. We want to make sure people get to that.”
Williams said her squads have chemistry.
“The girls work great together,” she said.
The squads practice separately two days a week and together on Thursdays.
“I did it that way so we’d have more specific time to work with just varsity and just JV and then also get the team-bonding aspect of giving the JV girls something to look up to and give the varsity girls someone to mentor,” Williams said. “So, I did that very strategically.”
She has just two seniors this season.
“They’re my first set of girls I taught all four years, so that feels like a full-circle moment for me,” Williams said. “Those girls are just great, and I’m really going to miss them when they’re gone.
“Serenity Bell is one of our captains this year, and Makailyn Lester is leading our spirit squad. She’s helping with all of our social media, all of our community outreach. They’re both leading in different ways, but they’re both in leadership aspects of the team.”
The cheerleaders will be in Callahan on Friday night, as well. They will be on the sideline cheering on the Pirates in their semifinal matchup against the West Nassau Warriors in the state playoffs.
Williams said wins and losses create challenges for her cheerleaders.
“It sure is easier to cheer when they’re winning,” Williams said, laughing. “When they’re losing and the crowd gets kind of angry, it’s more pressure on us to try to keep the crowd positive. Sometimes that’s really hard, but we do our best.”
The cheerleading competition starts at 9 a.m. Saturday at West Nassau High School, 1 Warrior Drive in Callahan.
bjones@nassaunewsline.net
