MORGANTOWN – The Morgantown High School cheer team welcomed six new faces to complete its roster of 13 girls for 2025. That number includes only one senior and multiple sophomores.
Despite the roster turnover and learning curve that came with it, the Mohigans captured gold at the 2025 WVSSAC Gameday Invitational with a first-place finish in the Small Varsity division.
The Gameday Invitational began in 2020 and has been held annually since. MHS first competed in 2022 and, in 2025, took home the top spot on their home court inside the Rowdie Center at Morgantown High.
“This is a great accomplishment for our girls, who’ve been juggling different styles since we began in August,” MHS coach Cindy Colasante said. “We hit the ground running with tryouts, and for some younger girls, it can be a little overwhelming, but this group really buckled down, worked hard, and embraced everything that’s been thrown at them.”
Gameday competition is different from a traditional cheer competition. The routines and cheers done during gameday competition are precisely that: the same cheers you hear on Friday nights in the fall or inside the gym during the winter.
“This meet is a little different than our normal regional or state competition,” Colasante said. “All the components are those from gameday.”
The three components are a band chant, a situational cheer, and finally the fight song.
“The band chant is a small dance routine,” Colasante said. “Then the situational is more like something we would do on the sideline during a third down or during a big moment of a game, and that incorporates the crowd as well. Those are all things we do during the game atmosphere on Friday nights.”
Another positive has been a heightened sense of adaptability among the team, something rare for a squad that includes so many newcomers.
“There’s a lot of energy with this group,” Colasante said. “I’ve noticed a strong desire to learn and be coachable. As a freshman, I think it’s easy to come in and be timid, but this group has truly come in and absorbed everything they can in a short amount of time, and we still have many things ahead of us.”
Regionals will be held in six weeks, on November 8. The state cheer competition is scheduled for November 19. Following that, the conclusion of the 2025 football season will make way for the 2025-2026 basketball season to begin shortly after football concludes.
“We are very busy as a team trying to do it all,” Colasante said. “But we are excited for what’s ahead and are dedicated to ourselves and to one another.”
