All-American cheerleader tryouts — the nerves are all around before they begin. Many of the Westside cheerleaders are worried about how they’ll do. Senior Annie Bradford is perfectly calm.

“I don’t really get nervous for that stuff… It’d be cool to be an All-American, but it wouldn’t make or break me,” Bradford said.

As these thoughts go through her head, she becomes ready to perform. The judges call her group in and the All-American tryout begins.

Once she got in the tryout room, it didn’t feel like she was trying out to be an All-American. She just treated it like another Friday night cheer.

Bradford claimed the tryout was easy. This was the intent of the judges, according to Bradford. They made it that way so they could see who had the best technique, which is how they picked the All-Americans.

Bradford performed the routine with ease. However, she was worried about the number of cheerleaders competing for spots.

The tryouts were part of a camp the Westside cheer squad went to over the summer. It was held at the University of Nebraska Wesleyan and squads from across the state participated.

Out of all the teams at the camp most were nominated for the All-American tryouts. After the tryout, only 15 cheerleaders earn a spot to be All-Americans. They were nominated based on how well their jumps, technique or showmanship were.

Westside had all of its juniors and seniors nominated, along with 6 sophomores. However, Bradford was the only Westside cheer member to make it through the tryout and become an All-American. Though only Bradford is an All-American, everyone nominated to tryout got to perform in the nationally televised Disney Christmas Day Parade on Dec. 5.

Westside sent 13 cheerleaders to Disney. The cheerleaders going are Bradford, seniors Hannah Smith, Madie Marshall, Morgan Novacek, Sydney Hawekotte, Anna Hoyme, Sidnee Dudley, Maddie Holmes, junior Jasmyn Ross and sophomores Alex Mitchell, Grace Yohannes, Reghan Callahan and Joslyn Frost.

Additionally, Bradford had the opportunity to perform in a New Year’s Day parade in London. She declined the offer so she could go to Disney and share the experience with her teammates.

“It’s a good opportunity to bond with the girls,” Bradford said. “There’s a large age range. I’m a senior, and there’s four sophomores so it’s fun to get to know them.”

Bradford was especially glad to spend time with the sophomores. Since sophomores can’t be on varsity during sports seasons, events like these and state cheer are the only times they get to be on the same team.

Being a sophomore, Alex Mitchell was thrilled  when she learned she could go to Disney and work with the varsity cheerleaders.

“It was amazing performing with them,” Mitchell said. “They made the experience 10 times better and could always make me laugh and smile,” Mitchell said.

When the team got to Disney World, they had to perform a routine in front of judges to determine where everyone will be placed. With over 800 cheerleaders performing, it will be tough for the girls to be seen. To help them have the best chance to be on TV, they practiced Tuesdays and Thursdays after school with the help of University of Nebraska Omaha cheerleader Olivia Kelly, who performed in the parade while she was in high school.

Though getting good spots in the parade was something the girls wanted, it wasn’t the most important part to Studts.

“It’s an awesome event and opportunity,” Studts said. “What I like is it’s not a huge pressure to win a competition, this is more about them having a fun experience together as a team.”

Correction (2:10 p.m. Dec. 15): The story has been edited to include Madie Marshall as one of 13 cheerleaders that went to Disney. Also added a quote with by Alex Mitchell.