Thomas Sumter competitive cheer wins state championship

The Thomas Sumter competitive cheer team is only in its infancy, but the Lady Generals are out to an almost perfect start.

TSA only formally restarted the program last year, and they earned state runners-up in SCISA 1A/2A. With a full year under their belts, the Lady Generals, who are led by head coach Jennifer Brazell and assistant coach Deseree Allen, took things to the next level. Thomas Sumter went down to North Charleston Athletic Center on Saturday and came home with a state championship.

"Saturday was a beautiful day just to see their hard work and their attitudes and just the way they encouraged each other. I didn't even have to really encourage them and motivate them because they motivated each other," Brazell said. "It was a beautiful moment to see that all come together. They looked amazing on Saturday."

Thomas Sumter ended up with 258 out of a possible 300 points. Not bad for a program that hadn't formally competed before last year's SCISA championships.

Brazell jumped on as the team's head coach two years ago because they needed someone to coach them through football season. TSA wasn't running a competitive cheer team at that point, but the girls needed someone at the helm. Brazell's daughter, Riley, asked her to take over, and she gave it a chance.

"I took over and just really fell in love with the girls," Brazell said. "They're amazing. They're driven, they're focused, and they're encouraging. The team atmosphere is truly something to watch at Thomas Sumter."

Last season, the girls saw an opportunity to compete at state as a competitive cheer team when SCISA removed the requirement that teams take part in two tournaments to qualify for state as competitions were limited by COVID-19. Brazell, who has coached cheer independently for more than a decade, saw the girls were committed.

"I told them, 'We haven't even really prepared. You're going to have to work harder than you've ever worked.' And they were all in," Brazell said. "They practiced every day for two and a half weeks and ended up runner up. Now this year, even though my daughter graduated, I knew that there was talent there and there was determination."

After placing second last year, Thomas Sumter competed in the two required competitions this season. The first was at Ben Lippen in October, where a stumble saw the Lady Generals finish in second place behind The King's Academy. Thomas Sumter won their second competition earlier this month at Hammond, but TKA didn't participate. The Lady Generals knew King's was their top competition.

"We didn't really know what was going to happen at state because they had beaten us once, but we'd had a mistake. We knew if we were clean, we'd at least have a chance," Brazell said. "We upgraded our difficulty after finishing second, which is hard to do. We only had two weeks between when we took second and state, so those two weeks we spent every practice cleaning things up and adding difficulty."

The team, which includes Lily Naylor, Lindsay Daniel, Lillian Lindler, Libby Gore, Riley Hyder, Abby Cox, Lilli Guinn, Avery Williams, Emily Porter, Laney Caughman, Gracie McCaskill, Stephanie Carges, Riya Patel and Lila Kate Stines, rolled with the increased difficulty and earned a state title.

"That's where they were really coachable. They listened to everything I asked them to do and executed everything," Brazell said. "They were receptive to the changes and performed really well on Saturday."