TIME-OUT

After nearly 45 years of cheerleading competitions, the Patriots decided to call a time-out.

At practice Tuesday, there was no fine-tuning of tumbling passes.

There was no synchronizing of dance sequence.

There was no perfecting of a pyramid that would be their final snapshot.

For the first time, Jay County High School’s cheerleading squad will compete in the time-out division during the Indiana Cheer Championship State Finals Saturday at New Castle.

Why the change from the more traditional routines of the past that the Patriots competed with at the Indiana State Fair and that took them to the Universal Cheerleaders Association nationals in 2017 and ’18?

“We want to do what we are really doing throughout the year,” said coach Cheree McCallister. “Our focus needs to be cheering for our teams at the high school.”

What does that mean?

The time-out competition focuses on sideline cheerleading skills — a performance is 1 minute, 15 seconds long and is designed to mimic a timeout during a high school basketball game — and routines are restricted to what cheerleaders are allowed to do under National Federation of State High School Associations rules.

So, no complicated pyramids. No twisting flips. No music.

Instead, squads are expected “to lead cheers, chants or traditional crowd-oriented material.”

“The whole point of it is to create crowd involvement,” said McCallister. “So our goal is to try to get the crowd and the judges to want to yell with us.”

They are scored on the design of their routine, communication with the crowd, visual precision, showmanship and overall impression. Points can also be deducted for a variety of infractions.

Seniors Rachel Louck and Kenna Kahlig said they’ve seen the benefits of preparing for the time-out competition in their efforts on the sidelines already this fall.

“It does help, because we can apply what we’ve done here during games,” said Louck.

“We get more feedback from our student section when we do these kinds of cheers,” added Kahlig.

Saturday’s competition begins at 10 a.m., with the Patriots scheduled to take the mat at 11:16 a.m. Time-out awards are scheduled for 1:15 p.m. (The rest of the competition will follow, and Jay County’s Renee Omstead and the other 11 all-state cheerleaders will perform a routine and display some of their individual skills prior to the evening awards ceremony.)

Forty schools are competing in the time-out division, including defending state champion Silver Creek, 2018 runner-up Mount Vernon and 2018 third-place squad North Central. The field also includes Delta, Yorktown and the host Trojans.

With such a large field and no experience competing in the time-out division, Jay County isn’t quite sure what to expect. But the Patriots are hoping to be among the best in the field.

“Jay County has always done the regular competition. But I feel like we’re really strong game cheerers,” said Kahlig. “So I feel like we can really show off what we’re capable of.”

McCallister said regardless of Saturday’s outcome — she’s hoping the Patriots can make the top 10 in their first time-out effort — the change to the different format has been positive.

“It has been such a nice change for us this year,” she said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”