Cheer Team Aiming for First in State
By John Earp
The Jal High School Cheer Team is aiming high for this coming school year. Coach Katia Martinez says she feels her team is already doing great in their practice sessions, and expects that her team will surpass last year’s fourth in state placement in the state competition. She is assisted by Coach Prissy Zamora.
The team has two camps that they are scheduled to attend this summer, one in in the middle of July in Lovington and one in San Antonio at the end of July. The first camp is a two-day skills camp, with emphasis on stunts, jumps, tumbling, etc. The second camp is a three-day camp, with “a mixture of everything,” according to Martinez.
Yes, yes. There’s gonna be one, July, in the middle of July, in Lovington, and then we have one in San Antonio, a master’s camp. at the end of July. Oh, at the end of July. “So they’ll learn routines, they’ll learn sideline cheers, then they’ll also learn stunts and how to get a get the crowd involved,” says Martinez.
The cheer camp in Lovington is put on by a company called Spirit Express out of Albuquerque. Martinez said, “Last year was our first year using them as choreographers for state and like for competitions and stuff. They put on camps throughout the year. So that’s why we had them come down for Jal last year. We are now one of their clients. So, we like to go and see what else they come up with.”
The camp in San Antonio is with the National Cheerleading Association. Martinez says Jal Cheer has “decided to go to a master’s camp this year, since the girls have been really improving, and honestly, since having them for their workouts this summer, you can tell that they haven’t lost any of their skills, especially with like new ones coming in, they just came in and they, they fit in. We just improved from last year. Like, we didn’t really have to go back to basics, which is nice.”
Martinez says she has eight new cheerleaders this year, with the remaining 14 returning to the team from last year. She said, “I told them in the beginning that it’s going to be long and it’s going to be hard. Ten months is a long time to be with a team. But I told them that if they trust me and they trust Coach Priscilla, and they trust the workouts, that by March, we will place, and hopefully we will win. I honestly think we will. These girls, they’re hungry, especially the returners, but the new ones also, like, they know what we’re about, and I think they understand how important it is, not just for me, but for the rest of the girls. So they’re ready to work. They’re ready to start.”
In the three years that Martinez has been the JHS Cheer Head Coach, the team has improved each year from 12th in state her second year, to 4th place her third year. She says, “So right now, all I’m seeing right now is improvement, and they are really wanting a trophy. So they’ll work hard and they’ll work out. They’ll work on themselves to try to make that happen, which is really nice to see as a coach.”
The JHS Cheer Team competes in the New Mexico Activities Association A/AA classification, which includes 20 schools from across the Land of Enchantment. Martinez says, “So we have a lot of people. We have a lot of teams competing against, and to get 4th out of so many teams, it shows that they have worked hard, and I think that’s why they want to. They’re working even harder this year because they are, they see that it’s working. There are always something a little bit more that we can be learning. We try to take it day by day, but these girls, they are, the best part about them is that they are wanting to be better, like not just for us, but for themselves.”
The 2026-2027 JHS Cheer Team includes: Emery Melancon, Yaracely Porras Franco, Sydnee Navarrette, Ayerim Veliz, Jessa Melancon, Bella Sanchez, Angel Contreras, Leilene Chavez, Ruby Gallegos, Olivia Ramirez, Jesslyn Estrada, Kylee Campos, Elizabeth Lujan, Grace Earp, Malidy Arriaga, Issela Mendoza, Amylah Melancon, Claire Seifts, Marsi Gomez, Roy Peugh, Emilio Carranza, and Zoe Leyba.