Lockwood Media
The 2025-26 school year included many firsts and personal records for Grove City High School’s competitive cheer teams - Non-Tumble, Non-Build (NTNB) and Gameday competition squad, which competed in the building/stunting division for the first time.
The teams competed at several competitions from November 2025 through February 2026, including the official cheerleading state championship hosted by the Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators (OASSA), where the two squads earned third and second.
With the competition program only in its fifth year, the team shares pride in its accomplishments.
New heights
Lockwood Media
Prior to the 2025-2026 school year, the cheer team competed in the large non-building gameday division and the small NTNB division with 9 athletes. Thanks to some new additions, the team made the jump to medium division this year with 13 athletes.
NTNB routines are set to music and characterized by sharp, synchronized dances and jumps, typically lasting two to three minutes.
Gameday routines also run about three minutes but feature specific elements, including a band chant, sideline chant, cheer and fight song. Building adds an additional challenge, but it was one the coaches felt ready for.
Coach Melissa Kelly says the push for the school district’s approval to add building to the program had been advocated for by both coaches and parents.
She says a lot of the coaches already had stunting experience, though the Gameday squad started off with a mix of skill levels.
“In order to make sure that all of our athletes were safe (and) all of our athletes were understanding the proper form and how we wanted that execution to be, we took them from the very basics and moved them up,” Kelly says. “They’ve grown leaps and bounds in what they’ve been able to do stunting-wise on the sidelines.”
Built on teamwork
London Doles, a 2026 graduate, was on both Gameday and NTNB. She had some stunting experience beforehand and says trust and coordination are essential.
“You have to do things at the same time and you have to be on the same page,” Doles says. “The stunts won’t go up if you aren’t able to work together, so that’s a challenge at first, but I feel like we all overcame that pretty quick, and we’re all a super close team.”
Gwen Jividen, a rising senior and member of the Gameday team, started off with no stunting experience. Along with the other girls, she focused on communicating with her teammates and the coaches to consistently improve.
“If something wasn’t good, we would never get mad at each other and we never blamed one person,” Jividen says. “It’s always pretty good teamwork.”
She says the experience was even better than she’d expected and is looking forward to her final season.
Practice pays off
Melissa Kelly
After moving up to new divisions, the Gameday and NTNB teams were pleasantly surprised with their placement in competition.
From August leading up to their first competition in November, the teams each practiced once a week for roughly two hours. With football season and busy sideline schedules, Kelly says the girls knew practice meant it was time to focus.
While the teams worked on maintaining high energy and synchronization, especially with 25 girls on the mat for Gameday, the most important thing was for them to give it their all.
“We’ve just always been taught (to) go out there and do your best and that’s all you can do. And if you went out and did your best, then the results are the results,” Doles says.
With both teams’ successes, Kelly says the coaches are looking to qualify for national competition this school year.
“We feel like this is that next step to continue to push our athletes and our program to the next level,” Kelly says. “That’s something that I think we as coaches are looking forward to, not just for that opportunity for our girls, but also to use that as a way to grow the program and continue to build on what we’ve already developed.”
Amanda Stevens is a contributing writer at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at astevens@cityscenemediagroup.com.
