The Kapaa High School cheer squad, including the team’s several members who are part of the Warrior football team, captured the Preseason Cheer Championships on Monday night at the new Kauai High School gymnasium.
Emcee Mel Rapozo, who is also the commissioner for Kauai Pop Warner Football League, said cheer is unlike football where you can afford to lose a game and still be a champion. With cheer, he said, it’s all or nothing. You cannot afford to slip up.
He described Kapaa as “living by FTS” which he had to investigate because an explanation was not provided in the narrative. Following his discussion with the Kapaa coaches, Rapozo said FTS stands for “Fear the Spear.”
The defending Kauai Interscholastic Federation champion team earned final score of 40.167 points out of a possible 50 points to emerge from the three-team competition before a panel of highly regarded judges as the first-place winner. Kapaa did not receive any penalty deductions.
Kauai High School finished with 37.867 final score for second place, and Waimea, with a new corps of coaches, tallied 30.100 final score for third place.
Each of the teams were scored equally in the Cheer Category, and Kapaa topped the Building Skills Totals, but was edged out by 0.1 point by Kauai High School in the Tumbling and Jumping category.
This victory, however, is not the KIF Championships. That comes on Oct. 27 at the new Kauai High School gymnasium. The first teams are scheduled to hit the mats at 5:30 p.m.
The Preseason Cheer was an opportunity for cheer teams to perform before the panel of judges that are armed with the state judging standards. After being judged for their performance on the mats, coaches get an idea of where they are weak and what individual cheer members need to work on in preparation for the KIF Championships.
Victory at the KIF Cheer Championships qualifies the winning squad to represent the KIF at the 2025 Zippy’s Hawaii High School Athletic Association Cheerleading State Championships Presented by Hawaii Army National Guard. The state championships will be held on Nov. 12. at the Neal Blaisdell Center on Oahu.
Source: The Garden Island