Spirit: Coming Off Silver Medal With Team USA, Mountain Vista Returns to State

Keri Atchison was there in the beginning.

“When the school opened, we just had one little freshmen Cheer team that I coached,” the Mountain Vista Spirit Director said. “Within three years, we grew enough to add Poms. I’m the only Poms coach Vista has ever had.”

Now, 25 years later, the Golden Eagles have a long list of accomplishments that very few in Colorado have achieved.

They have 13 Spirit state championships, second-most to Eaglecrest (16), and they’re the only school that has earned state titles in Cheer, Pom, Hip-Hop, and Jazz.

When the state competition is held this Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 11-13, at the Denver Coliseum, Mountain Vista will look to add to its legacy. The Golden Eagles will compete in both the cheer and dance divisions, with the dance team needing to choose between Jazz, Hip-Hop, and Poms.

Atchison explained the differences between the various types of dance.

“The Pom division is more traditional,” she said. “It is almost more cheerleader-like. It’s very sharp, it’s very fast, it’s very athletic. The Hip-Hop division obviously uses the genre of Hip-Hop. It’s very unique and different in its own right as a genre of dance. The Jazz division is more traditional dance where you’re looking at more traditional dance technique that is executed throughout. When you watch Jazz, Pom, and Hip-Hop you see that all three are very, very different. That’s why schools have a speciality area they compete in.”

Although you must select one to take part in for the school year, Mountain Vista has excelled in every type of dance over the years.

In fact, their Jazz team clinched the national championship in Orlando last year. The group of 17 dancers then went on to an even bigger stage.

“Last school year, we were also the US National Team,” Atchison said, whose Golden Eagles were national champions in 2017, as well. “We got to compete at the World Championships, where we took the silver medal, and then we were invited to China where we spent nine days as guests of the Chinese cheerleading federation. We got to compete with both our Jazz and Poms teams and we won gold in both of those in China.”

“It truly was the biggest honor,” senior Kaitlyn Slaughter said of representing the USA. “Being able to take another trip and meeting people from other countries was probably the best part.”

The Golden Eagles attained success at the very highest level.

Interestingly, they did not clinch the Jazz state championship last fall, instead placing third. Cherokee Trail earned the title, while Vista won it in 2023, but the Golden Eagles were able to bounce back and set their sights on nationals in February.

“Not every performance was our best throughout the season, but they were able to overcome that and learn from it and just keep pushing and keep fighting,” Atchison said. “Even though our season didn’t end until almost June, which is a lot longer than a typical Spirit season goes, they just kept pushing and growing.”

Slaughter gave plenty of credit to the coaching staff, which has four members for the varsity team. She especially highlighted Coach Atchison.

“She has been an amazing leader and mentor,” Slaughter said. “She always knows what’s best for us. She is the most uplifting coach ever. Our assistant coaches are always there for our head coach and always there for us.”

The girls also rely on each other and seniors Kyah Armstrong, Sophia Bui, Lauren Byers, Presley Nichols, Lillie Woolfolk, and Slaughter have been at the forefront of continuing a terrific culture.

“My six seniors have all been with me at least three years, most of them all four, and they are really great leaders,” Atchison said. “They lead with a lot of heart and a lot of passion. They have been tremendous about growing and building our culture. I can honestly say that these 17 dancers are as close and united as any team I’ve had in 25 years. It’s because of the seniors and the way they’ve been leading.”

Slaughter noted that Bui has been an absolute rock for the team and uplifts her teammates.

The other Spirit team for this proud program, the Cheer group, also has tremendous leaders and finished on top at the state championships last fall. It was Mountain Vista’s third Cheer title and their first since they went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007.

Head Cheer coach Carrie Gerry, now in her sixth season at the school as a teacher and a coach, knows winning the championship happened through a successful process over a few years.

“When I first took over the program in 2020, we were co-ed,” Gerry said. “They had been a co-ed program for many years. After my first year here, I had all my boys graduate and then no new boys tried out. We became an all-girls team, so last year was only our fourth season competing in all-girl. It’s arguably the most competitive division in Colorado and one of the most competitive in the nation. To have that growth in those four short years and to be able to win in that amount of time, it meant everything.”

The Golden Eagles emerged as the best from the Continental League, the top conference in Colorado, and the most outstanding in 5A. The top four teams at state–Vista, Douglas County, Chaparral, and Legend–all came from the Continental League.

“We’ve had the talent, but it was the belief factor last year that really got them,” Gerry said. “They saw how their routine was stacking up against other teams during the season and they just really believed in themselves. They were so checked in on that day. The vibes were so high. We didn’t put out a perfect routine in the Prelims, but I just knew they were going to come out in the Finals and get a hit and they did.”

In the spring semester, the Cheer team also went on to test themselves at the national competition in Orlando. They placed ninth out of 112 teams, one season after finishing seventh.

This may be another memorable school year for the Cheer team as they earned first in their division at a UCA Regional Competition in Birmingham, Alabama this fall.

Gerry is confident in her 16 girls heading into the state championships, 11 of which are juniors, but she also recognizes how difficult it’s been to seal two titles in a row.

“Our division has had incredible depth,” she said. “The teams do really well at the local and the national level, so we always say it’s just a blood bath competing 5A all-girl. No one has gone back-to-back in our division in over 10 years, so it’s definitely a big hill to climb. It’s a big feat if we do it, but they’ve had a really successful season so far.”

Their coach flourished as an athlete, herself, going back to her days growing up in Michigan.

“I started out in gymnastics and transitioned to cheerleading in middle school,” Gerry said. “I did all-star cheerleading originally and then I switched to cheerleading for my school my sophomore year. I won state my senior year myself and it launched my passion for cheerleading. I cheered in college at Bowling Green State University and worked for the Universal Cheerleader Association for eight years.”

After that, Gerry went on to coach all-star cheerleading, then coached at Wheat Ridge High School, before joining the powerhouse Mountain Vista program.

She’s made quite an impact on her team, which includes seniors Kenna Friel and Ava Bellora, along with juniors Annabelle Stopnik, Kennedy Smith, and Vivienne Rauscher. Assistant coach Diego Garcia helps lead the way, as well.

In the end, Mountain Vista, which opened in 2001, has already claimed 38 team state championships across all sports. They even won a national championship in another activity last school year, girls cross country.

So, how have they prospered this much?

“I think there’s something special about the Mountain Vista community,” Gerry said. “We are a very tight-knit school and the community excels in everything, from sports to academics. We do Wish Week in a really, really big way. Being able to have the whole community rally around here and being able to have that support has made a big difference. There’s a different level of excellence and expectation here.”

“As a school, we create such a great culture of kindness and inclusivity,” Slaughter added.

The culture has certainly paid off.