By Catherine Laroche

The University of Louisville spirit groups spend the entire year cheering on every Cardinal athletic team to success. Now, they are ready for fans to cheer them on as they compete for another national championship.

“It [winning a national championship] pretty much sums up our whole year,” Samantha Tackett, senior Ladybird said. “We do a lot of things for everyone else the whole year, so winning nationals is like our time to shine and to let everyone else know how hard we work all year.”

The cheerleaders and Ladybirds will head to Daytona Beach, Fla. for the Collegiate National Championships, April 8 – 11.

“Our goal is to hit perfect routines and bring home three national titles,” Demorick Garrett, senior large co-ed cheerleader, said.

The Ladybirds and large co-ed cheerleaders are looking to defend their championship, while the small co-ed and all-girl cheerleaders will try to re-claim their title after a couple of near misses. Last year, the all-girl squad fell .08 short of a championship to the University of Maryland, while the small-coed squad was runner-up to Oklahoma State University by .02.

There have been changes for the large co-ed squad, but the team doesn’t expect much of a difference in their quest to re-claim the title. They will be taking 11 men and nine girls to compete, with a much harder routine than in the past.

Last year, the Ladybirds shared their title with Brigham Young University. This year, they hope to be the sole national champions.

“This has been a rebuilding year for us,” Tackett said. “We have a very large freshmen class. We just want to keep the Ladybirds name and go out there and hit a flawless performance and hopefully come home with a national championship.”

U of L’s biggest competition will be Oklahoma State and North Carolina State University, but after several weeks of practicing a new routine, the spirit program is ready to show off their hard work.

“The best thing about nationals is being able to come together as a team and just show everybody in the cheerleading world what the University of Louisville cheerleaders are made of,” Garrett said.

Fans will have two opportunities to preview the routines on Sun., April 6 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Cardinal Arena.