Central Lafourche cheer competes in national championship, finishes eighth in nation

Four years ago, Central Lafourche High School's cheer team qualified for the Universal Cheerleaders Association national championship for the first time. Last year, the Trojans did it again, and this time made it to the semifinals. But earlier this month, CL had its finest performance in the 12 years that head coach Gilene Fugat has been at the helm: her team was not only a finalist, but placed eighth in the nation while doing so.

"Our goal was just to do better than last year," said Fugat. "And we not only reached our goal, but beyond."

Before they could compete for a national title, though, the Trojans needed a routine and a division. There's the traditional routines, which are made up of all-star teams and some high schools, and has more tricks and stunts. Then, there's the game-day routines. The game-day routines are more popular among high schools and are exactly what the name suggests: the routines are similar to those the team normally does at football games. The game-day routine, specifically the Varsity Coed Non-Tumbling Division (which prohibits most feet-over-head rotation) is what CL chose.

"It kind of has the atmosphere of a Friday night football game," Fugat said. "We have a band performing, we have situational performances like offense and defense, we have our fight song. And we put it all together in a three-minute routine for the judges."

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With the routine in hand, the Trojans set off for their regional competitions. They competed in two regionals, and each routine at the regional — and the national championship — is scored out of 100 points. Those points are divided into eight categories. The final score is the average of all the judges' scorecards, although points can also be deducted for things such as going over the time limit, unsportsmanlike conduct, and safety violations.

Their first regional came in Baton Rouge in November, and CL's score of 91.7 with no deductions gave the team a win and momentum heading into the second regional in December at Hammond. Hammond's regional wasn't as successful, as the Trojans scored an 87.5 — still with no deductions, but that was enough to clinch third place and qualify for the national championship.

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The national championship is held every February at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and is split into three rounds. The first round, or the prelims, features almost 1,200 teams coming from nearly every state to compete in 20 different divisions. The top 25 from each division make it to the next round, the semifinals. It gets even more exclusive from there, with 13 clinching a spot in the finals for a chance at a national championship.

In Orlando, CL cruised through the prelims and advanced to the semifinals for the second straight year. Unlike in 2023, the Trojans' run didn't come to an end here. Their 85.6 points placed them eighth, comfortably ahead of the cut line and clinching a spot to compete for a national title.

While Central Lafourche didn't claim the title this year, it did improve its score from the semifinals: its 88.8 finish was enough to clinch eighth in America. The Trojans not only set a program record with its finish, but also improved for the third straight trip to Orlando.

"Our first year, we went not really knowing what we were getting into. We had some mistakes we weren't aware of and we couldn't move on. We were distraught," said Gabbie Stratton, a former cheerleader on CL's first team to qualify who now serves as an assistant coach on this year's team. "But making it as far as we did this year was really heartwarming. We were able to make history."

The history-making 2024 squad was in shock at first. But once they realized what they had just accomplished, the cheerleaders' excitement finally broke through.

"The kids were really excited," said Fugat. "When we first got off the mat after the awards, they were like, 'Okay, is this real?' And I was like, 'We just took top-10. We just took eighth in the nation. That is something to be excited about.' I could not be more proud of them."

The Trojans are already looking forward to 2025, and are considering adding a traditional routine alongside their game-day routine. According to Fugat, Central Lafourche won't be going anywhere.

"As soon as we finished, the kids wanted to go back to 6 a.m. practice. We set ourselves a goal for next year already," Fugat said. "And that is to be top five, if not further. Every year, we just want to be better than we were the year before."