Nearly all colleges and universities globally have a cheer team. The cheer team will be in many sporting events such as football and basketball games. For colleges and universities that do not have a football team, the cheer team will be found mainly in basketball games along with many community events. Lake Land College has a cheer team that has a noticeable appearance in both the women’s and men’s basketball games.  

Coach Haili Denning has been the head coach for the cheer team on campus for the past five years. While Denning has never coached in any capacity prior to being the cheer coach on campus, she was on the cheer team as a student here in 2006 after being in the same capacity at Neoga High School.  

She mentioned that every other year in April, “the cheer team has been in the national tournament at Daytona Beach, Florida at the Bandshell since we are a national qualifier. We will go there this upcoming April (2025) and was last there in 2023.” 

In determining who goes to the national tournament, she explained, “we will have to go to a NCAA camp to compete as a qualifier. If we are a qualifier at the camp, that places a bid for us to proceed to the nationals. The camp that we went to is at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois.”     

Regarding how each team is evaluated in the national tournament, she clarified, “we are scored on the technique, difficulty, execution, crowd appeal, showmanship and a bonus if you have a mascot.” 

Regarding the competition in the national tournament, she mentioned, “the best cheer teams are Navarro Community College and Trinity Valley Community College, which are both located in Texas. All cheer teams nationwide, whether a community college or at a large university, are judged by the same standard as aforementioned previously and we compete against all of them. Navarro every year seems to win the tournament.”