Back-to-Back Blue for Raton Cheer

By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media

 

Raton Cheer Coach Linda Ortiz celebrates 30 years of coaching cheer for Raton High School with another state championship Friday as the Raton Cheer Team handily won the Class 3A title over rival West Las Vegas by just over seven points.

This year’s competition was a bit different format as all of cheer performed on Friday with dance getting all of their performances done on Saturday. The format was developed to help reduce the numbers of teams and spectators in the Pit to meet group numbers restriction for the state health order.

Raton Cheer returned to the University of New Mexico Friday May 14, 2021 after a one-year hiatus from state competition because of Covid. They returned to the Pit with the 2019 Class 3A state title after winning it in 2019. Coach Ortiz said it was a tough year for cheer as the school year began with high school sports wondering if they would even get to play this school year.

In January it all began with a fall sports schedule crammed into one month with volleyball and football followed by a jam-packed month of basketball before the state spirit competition. Ortiz noted they began their cheer season with lots of games to cheer for while still having to meet the restriction of the state covid health orders. Raton cheer also felt the wrath of the pandemic with a 10-day quarantine period only a few short weeks before the state competition.

The girls knew what they had to do and had a state preview performance set for Thursday before the trip to Albuquerque on Friday. That performance was cancelled as the girls and the Coach Ortiz felt like they needed additional practice. The extra work paid off as the girls took the court in the Pit at UNM Friday afternoon and nailed an almost flawless game day performance.

An hour and 15 minutes later they rallied on the court again for Cheer with Music. After the performance the girls knew they had another great performance as their excitement and jubilation showed with hugs all around and cheers by the team and fans alike filled the Pit.

It would be a few minutes after the cheer competition completed before the ladies would know that they once again would bring a blue trophy back to Raton. Due to the covid restrictions still in place on Friday trophy presentations were not held. A NMAA representative will travel to Raton later this week to present the trophy and banner to the team.

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