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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger. That's certainly going to be the learning experience here at Daytona Beach for the Stanislaus State Cheer Team this week during the NCA Cheerleading National Championships.
 
As the lone representative from California's public four-year universities, the Warrior Cheer Team finished in the top 10 in the Intermediate All-Girl Division II category — taking home a third trophy here in as many consecutive appearances at the largest collegiate cheerleading competition in the country.
 
A sprained knee mishap to a team member during final warm ups for Thursday's prelim competition added to a half-of-a-squad full of injuries caused changes to the routine — and the Warriors' mindsets. After modifying the routine without the injured athlete, the Valley Tough Warriors went out less than an hour later and executed without technical deductions. However, the events of the day affected the team's spirit and performance as it show in its placing heading into Friday's finals.
 
"I couldn't be more proud of this team, handling the challenges, the adversity and injuries all season, but especially this week here," coach Mike DeGuzman said. "We may not have gotten the placing we came here for, but we are walking away with a lot of character building situations. These lessons will make them wanting more for next year and make them stronger in life. They learned how not to quit when things are bad and to trust and support each other the entire way."
 
On Friday, after a four-hour practice Thursday afternoon to work on a new routine, the team again put its best forward inside the Ocean Center Arena. However, the deficit proved too hard to recover from as Stan State were not able to match 2018's third-place performance.
 
Still, the Warriors finished ninth in their Division, won by Oklahoma Baptist University. Stan State was the only California State University or University of California team to compete. The only other teams, private or community college present from California, were California Baptist (Division I), Mt. SAC and Riverside Community College, which competed in other Divisions. Stan State was the only Division II West Region school in its division. (University of Alaska competed in Division II Co-Ed).
 
Warrior Cheer is still the little engine that could. Nearly every team that finished ahead of the Warriors were funded and provided scholarships.
 
This was Stan State Cheer Team's fifth season in competitive cheerleading. After two years at the smaller competition in Anaheim, where they peaked at No. 2 behind the now 8-time National Champion California Baptist, the Warriors spent the last three seasons here at the prestigious NCA Championships. They were sixth in 2017 and took home the third place trophy in 2018.