After a long season of preparation, Xavier Spiritline attended the 2025 Spirit Nationals in Anaheim, California, becoming two-time national champions. Cheer won the Varsity Game Day Large Division award for the second year in a row and defended their title as national champions.
Aside from the Game Day first place win, Cheer also placed 5th in the Advanced Small Show Cheer division. Their strong performances and hard work throughout the season resulted in the Gators coming home with two national awards.
This year and recent years, Spiritline consisted of two teams, Pom and Cheer, who practiced on very similar schedules year-round. Their competition season leading up to nationals “was not perfect, but definitely challenged us as a team. It forced us to come together and learn how to rely on each other to succeed,” said cheer captain Rowan Ostendorf ‘25.
Spiritline Gators share a love for their sport, driving them to practice year round. Their practices start early in the morning most week days, and take up about half of their day on Saturdays.
Their love and dedication to Cheer and Pom is what allows Xavier to “always compete at a very high level,” said Brittany Ecker, a supervisor of Spiritline nationals.
“Prior to competing at nationals, Spiritline spent its season practicing and competing at regional competitions,” said Sister Kathleen Sinclair, a manager of Spiritline and Gatorline. “The teams dedicate a lot of time to perfecting and practicing their routines. They work hard preparing for state and nationals.”
Both pom and cheer started the year with new coaches, which brought new ideas and style to their routines, said Sinclair. This gave the team new sets of eyes, and had them performing different choreography.
After months of practicing their new routines and choreography, Spiritline was almost ready to compete in California.
As nationals approached, “I believe there was added pressure in our heads, whether we wanted to admit it or not. We knew we were the defending champions and needed to prove that we deserved that honor,” shared Ostendorf.
Despite the pressure felt by Spiritline, the weekend of nationals came, and the Gators did amazing. “The fiveman stunt team has never performed better all year,” Ecker said.
Regardless of the difficulties Spiritline faced this season, they pushed through and won nationals for the second year in a row.
“They did great. They improved from where they started in the beginning of the year, which is all you can ask for,” said Sinclair.
The Gators and coaches are ready to see what future seasons and competitions will bring.
