FIU Cheer brings home national championship

Five years ago, Patrick Franklin attended the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) championships in Daytona Beach. At the time, he was cheering for a small college in Pennsylvania, but in checking out the other teams, he found himself drawn to FIU. “Their energy was captivating. When you experience that, you just want to be a part of it,” he says. So the young man from Pennsylvania packed up his car and transferred to FIU where he’s cheered ever since.

On April 8, Franklin and his teammates were in Daytona Beach once again for nationals. This time, FIU Cheer is bringing home the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) national championship for the first time since 1998.

The team placed first in the Intermediate Small Coed Division I-A category.

“I’m feeling so many emotions right now,” says Franklin, a broadcast major, who spoke to FIU News less than 24 hours after finals.

The team beat out the 12 other competitors in their category, placing first in both the preliminary and final rounds and closing out the competition with a final score of 97.4028 points. FIU Cheer Head Coach Cory Hines says that score was the eighth highest of the entire competition across all categories, which included routines presented by 140 teams..

“We have a history of being bridesmaids at college nationals,” says Hines, who cheered for FIU from 2003-2005. “For the past six or seven years, we’ve come in second or third.”

Everyone involved said there was something special about this year’s team.

“We had to go all-in and do more research and training than we’ve ever done because FIU did not compete at last year’s NCA nationals,” says Hines. “The year before the competition was canceled due to COVID-19, so this is the first time in three years we were competing at nationals.”

Hines explained that, unlike club competitions where teams are familiar with their competitors’ routines prior to championship meets (and can make adjustments to their own routines based on what the competition is doing), college teams compete at the NCA championships without that luxury. “You got what you got, so you better come in with something good because you don’t know what the other teams are coming in with,” says the longtime cheer professional.

This year’s team learned their routine in three weeks, a remarkably quick time. Franklin says he thinks that helped solidify the team’s special bond. “We were practicing at 5 a.m. before classes, we practiced in the evenings. Knowing that we didn’t have a lot of time to get the routine down helped us focus. Everyone was supportive of one another. It was all love.”

Hines says the team took advantage of every spare moment in Daytona to work on the details that helped make the difference, using whatever space they could find. “One day, we found a patch of grass and practiced there, focusing on the details reflected in the judges’ feedback. Whatever this team could do to improve, it did.”

For Franklin, who is graduating in a few weeks, and his teammates, bringing home the hardware is a storybook ending to a magical year. When asked what he wanted Panthers to know, he says, “The cheer world already knew about us, but this national championship really puts FIU on the map. And I also want people to know that this team is coming in even hotter next year.”

Ja'Bryan Butler and Sabrina Marin