Competition Cheer wins Region 3C Cheer Championship
Varsity Competition Cheer placed first following their performance at the Region 3C Championship. Harrisonburg will move on to the VHSL Class 3 State Competition held at VCU on Sat, Nov 8. at noon.
Coach Dani Peyton describes what earning first place means for the team.
“It means so much for us, our goal this year had been to win districts and regionals. They have worked so hard to achieve this and they really pull together and support each other when it matters most,” Peyton said.
Sophomore Rhett Curtis, who joined the team for the first time this year is ready to put in the work for the States Competition.
“We are going to get as clean and sharp as we can possibly get,” Curtis said.
For senior triplets Atilla, Ayca and Can Cavusoglu-Yalcin, hearing HHS being called for first place brought extra emotion for their last regional competition.
“They reveal all the teams last to first, so when they called Brookville High School for second place, we knew we won, and we all just started sobbing,” Ayca said.
During the Triplets’ time at HHS, the competition cheer team has never made it past regionals before.
“We’ve never been to states before, and prior to this year we were in Region 5D so we would go against huge schools that all had cheerleaders with lots of experience doing club cheer, so we didn’t really stand a chance. This year, us moving to 3C has really been a miracle honestly and for our senior year going to regionals, winning regionals, and now going to states has been unreal,” Can said.
Today’s triumph over Region 3C snaps a 13 year-long losing streak at regionals for HHS.
“We’re very excited because we broke the 13 year-long curse of Harrisonburg not making it to states for cheer,”Atilla said.
At the regional competition, Atilla Cavusoglu-Yalcin was named the 2025 VHSL Region 3C Competition Cheer Performer of the Year.
Cavusoglu-Yalcin reflects on the hard work he has put in to be named performer of the year.
“It means so much to be named cheerleader of the year, it shows that my hard work throughout my life pays off,” Cavusoglu-Yalcin said.
Stay tuned for more coverage as the team moves on to the VHSL Region 3 Competition on Sat, Nov 8. at noon held at VCU.
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