Richmond Hill High School senior Olivia Reed received the honor of being among the top 40 cheerleaders in the Georgia.

RHHS Head Cheerleading Coach Wendy Dauphinee nominated Olivia for cheerleader of the year because of her excellence not only in the sport of cheerleading, but also in academics and extracurricular involvement. Nominees are required to have at least a 3.5 GPA. Olivia satisfied that requirement by being on the principal's honor roll.

Olivia was junior class president; she is in the Student Council, Beta Club, and SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving). She is a trained peer mediator and mentor and was selected for the peer mentoring program. She also serves as captain of this year's football/competition cheerleading team.

As part of the selection process, nominees were required to submit an essay along with two letters of recommendation.

Forty cheerleaders were selected from more than 100 applicants from across the state of Georgia to compete in the Cheerleader of the Year/ All- State Squad competition in Columbus on Aug. 9.

COLUMBUS - The Richmond Hill High School Varsity Competition Cheerleaders qualified for the state cheerleading finals held in Columbus Nov. 10 by winning their region (3-AAA) for the fourth year in a row. The team's goals from day one were to be region champs and to garner a top six spot at the state finals.

Saturday, their routine started off strongly with the squad's exceptional tumbling, but struggled when two stunt groups came down early.

"The competition at the state level was very, very strong. So we knew we would have to hit a perfect routine in order to finish in the top six. Once those two stunts came down, we knew it was pretty much a done deal," said head coach Wendy Dauphinee. "The girls didn't give up and did a great job of recovering and finished the rest of the routine to near perfection, but it wasn't enough to place in the top six."

The GHSA state cheerleading champions in class triple AAA were Central-Carrollton with Columbus, Oconee County and Northside-Columbus rounding out the top four teams.

"I am so proud of everything we accomplished this year and I am especially proud of all the girls who put their hearts and souls into this sport. We are a bit disappointed with our finish at state and it's always tough going out knowing you didn't perform your best routine.

"That being said, we are region champions and one of the top 16 teams in the state, which is pretty awesome," Dauphinee added.

Despite having no other Class AAA teams to compete against Sept. 13 at a cheerleading competition at Jeff Davis High School in Hazlehurst, Richmond Hill High School's competitive cheerleading coach, Wendy Dauphinee, was happy with her team's performance.

"We won our division, but we were the only team in it, so that doesn't really mean a lot," Dauphinee said. "What was impressive to me is that our scores were higher than they were at any competition other than the region championships last year.

"That's really what's important to us right now, we are really focusing on our scores, so this makes me feel like we've got a good start on the season," she continued.

But even with that good start, Dauphinee said the team still has to put in some serious practice time if they are going to win their fifth consecutive region championship.

"The energy, enthusiasm and showmanship were all there this weekend," she said. "But we've got some work to do on our pyramid, it didn't go up. So we're going to be concentrating on that plus our stunts and tumbling for now. I think we can improve all three. But overall I am pretty happy with where we are. Like I said, right now we are working on our scores."

Their next opportunity to work on their scores in competition will be Sept. 20 at Richmond Hill High School.

"We've got 17 total teams coming, but unfortunately we won't have any AAA teams here either, so once again we're really going to be competing against ourselves, but that's okay. In reality we are always competing against ourselves."

Bryan County High School will be one of the teams competing Saturday.

Dauphinee said she hopes to have as many as 1,000 people attend the competition Saturday.

RHHS cheerleading squad finished second in a competition in Camden County on Sept. 22 after winning the Coastal Cheer Classic in Richmond Hill on Sept. 15.

Congratulations RHHS Cheerleaders for a job well done and a reward well deserved!