Raton Tiger Cheer Brings Home Fourth Straight State Spirit Title

By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media

After months of practice and preperation, the tensest few moments for Raton Cheer were as the announcer at the UNM Pit announced the 3A winners in the NM State Spirit Championships on Saturday morning March 18. The third place team – Cobre and the second place team – Ruidoso and, finally the moment that made every Raton follower cheer,  as the Raton High School was announced as the winners of the 2023 3A State Spirit Championship.

Team members included; Calyssa Hanson, Ciara Hernandez, Deanna Sanchez, Deja Garcia, Jaylynn Trueba, Keira Kuchan, Krystle Montoya, Maggie Flores, Sapphire Acevedo, Travis Garcia, Yaire Uribe, Tyleigh Valdez, Tierra Garrett, Moses Bueno, Mary Catherine Ware, Gabby Vega, Destiny Nichols, Alina Avila, Juliana Ware, Isabella Sanchez, Gaby Ortega, Jordan Mashall and Alyssa Romero.

With the trophy,  Raton had earned their fourth straight state title. This current winning streak was started in 2019 with former cheer coach Linda Ortiz, who retired from cheer with 30 years of coaching and five state titles under her belt. That winning streak was continued by teams under cheer coach Christine Coca and assistant coach Christine Valdez in 2021 and 2022 (State spirit was cancelled in 2020 due to covid.) and now first-year cheer coach Donnie Hernandez, assisted by Mia Maestas and Peyton Arguello, continues the winning streak bringing home the fourth straight state title for Raton. All five coaches were also cheerleaders under Ortiz who said “that is exciting to know former cheerleaders continue as coaches.”

Hernandez noted that when the year began they had a small team. He managed to recruit more girls and create a team with 10 seniors and 13 underclassmen that proved they could do what it takes to win. Losing 10 seniors will bring a bit of a challenge for the team to once again rebuild and defend their state title. Hernandez noted after the competition that they are up for the challenge. 

The ladies had a couple of bobbles in their game day routine but came back and nailed their cheer with music routine. The girl’s celebration after the first routine was notably absent of joy but after the second routine, one could see the joy on the girl’s faces knowing they had nailed the performance. However, it was their first performance that gave Raton the extra points to take home the trophy. 

In Class A-2A returning state champion Clayton Yellowjackets defended their title against 13 other teams including the Maxwell Bears who performed in the competition for the first time in a few years. While both teams had solid performances the competition in class A-2A was stiff and saw Clayton finish 4th, 19.5 points behind first place Questa and Maxwell finish 11th in the standings.

The girls will have tryouts in April and then take a couple of months off and begin workouts and practice in July to get ready for football and volleyball in August.