Denali All-Stars have something to cheer about

For the first time in its two-year history, the Denali All-Stars are settling for second place. But since the ranking came in the cheerleading squad's first attempt at a national title, no one's complaining.

"I thought maybe we'd make it to finals, but I never expected to do as well as we did," said All Star Brittanii Ratcliffe, a 16-year-old sophomore from Wasilla High School.

Ratcliffe is one of 25 Denali All-Stars who competed Feb. 7 and 8 in the American Cheer Power All-Star Southern National Championships in San Antonio, Texas. This competition-and-performance squad from Denali Gymnastics and Fitness in Wasilla finished first place overall in both the 2003 and 2004 Alaska State Cheerleading Competitions. Despite the squad's success in Alaska, coaches Leon and Sandy Reynolds said the second-place finish in Texas took everyone by surprise.

"Here in Alaska we're the strongest tumbling team, but down there, we were out-tumbled by 10-year-olds," Leon said.

He said he knew the level of competition would be much higher going against other All-Star squads than it is when they compete against high-school squads. Despite their classification as cheerleaders, All-Stars focus primarily on tumbling and stunting. Because they're not bound by high-school safety regulations, they can do things -- such as going inverted in stunts -- that high schools are usually prohibited from doing. And, though All-Star programs are new to Alaska, they're not new to the rest of the country.

"The [programs in the Lower 48] are very well developed. Some have been around for 10 or 15 years, and they treat it just like gymnastics training. They have entire gyms devoted to their programs. They start [the athletes] very young and the focus is on tumbling: They start at [age] 5, and by the time they're 10, they're doing things that most kids never learn," Leon said. "They train five days a week, three hours a day."

In fact, he said, he saw Denali's training time -- five hours each week -- as the squad's biggest disadvantage going into the competition.

"Realistically, how can we expect to compete with five hours of training with a team that trains 15 hours?" he said. "They beat good teams."

Denali All-Star Amy Harris, a sophomore from Colony High School, said maybe her squad's second-place finish was beginner's luck. But Sandy Reynolds said it was more than that. She said Denali competed as a small-coed squad in the A-level of the competition. Squads competing at this level are considered elite because they are capable of higher-level skills. But Reynolds said it takes more than difficult skills -- or luck -- to win.

"We've been emphasizing clean routines -- clean is what wins competitions," she said. "We put in things that we knew they could hit every time."

She said the third-place team's routine had more difficult tumbling passes and higher level skills than Denali's, but Denali's moves were sharp.

Whether their second-place finish was due to luck or not, both coaches said the competition was an amazing experience.

"This was our first time out of state and [Denali All-Stars] is a brand new program -- how cool is that!" Leon said.

The competition will air on Fox Sports March 13.