TSD cheer teams Rain and Storm place first and second at USA Spirit Nationals in Anaheim

Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com

In Total Sports Development’s (TSD) final competition as a Yelm-based program, two teams representing the TSD branding finished atop of the national ranks in Anaheim, California, during the USA Spirit Nationals.

TSD Rain, coached by sisters Kaylee McJunkins and Kendall McJunkins, finished as the national champions in the eight to 12 year old category, while TSD Storm, coached by Coral Ogle and Brooklyn Martin, finished in second overall place.

Prior to TSD’s appearance in the national competition in Anaheim, California, on Sunday, Feb. 22, the four coaches, along with TSD co-founder Amber Ogle, spoke about how big the opportunity was for both teams and the athletes involved.

“The one thing I want to put out there is that all of my coaches, people gave me a lot of flack because they’re so young. But they’ve proven they’re more than capable and the parents learned that very quickly, and they trust them,” Amber Ogle said, on Wednesday, Feb. 18. “What’s making this program so special is, of course, not only the parents and athletes coming together and believing in us, but our coaches love and trust each other. When we have each other’s back, anything is possible.”

The McJunkins sisters, TSD Rain’s coaches, were both thrilled with the amount of hard work that the young athletes had put in leading up for a chance to earn a national championship. Kaylee highlighted the program’s early-season efforts — which began all the way back in August.

“We started in August practicing pretty consistently, multiple times per week. We started off with choreography so they could get better and better as the weeks went on,” Kaylee said. “Our first competition was on Nov. 8, and that was our qualifier for the national competition. The girls qualified immediately and that was amazing. It set us off on a really good foot for the whole season. They’ve been undefeated since.”

Kendall added that TSD Rain had a really good season in the organization’s inaugural season in 2024-25, and she believed the team was primed to have an even better year this season.

“We had a lot of confidence that this team would kill it and they did. We believe in them, and it was such a good experience,” Kendall said. “The girls were so excited to go to California and Disneyland and get this experience. We competed ,last year, in just the state competition. They wanted to go do something bigger this year, and we knew that they could. We’re ready to conquer this competition.”

Coral Ogle and Martin helped lead TSD Storm to the national championship tournament in the team’s first year of existence. Ahead of their efforts in Anaheim, their team was made aware of a massive change that needed to happen to their routine prior to arriving in California.

“This is the first year for TSD Storm. We went our whole entire season undefeated in a non-tumbling division. Recently, we figured out that for nationals, they’re in a tumbling division,” Coral Ogle said. “We had to re-choreograph pretty much a whole portion of our routine, which is a really big deal, into tumbling. So now they’re going into nationals with a whole different routine, and tumbling as a non-tumbling team. It’s been a huge adjustment but they have done incredible so far. We’re insanely proud of how far they’ve come.”

According to Martin, the transition from the non-tumbling category to the tumbling competition was a tough one — at first.

“There were tears but there were also a lot of laughs too. It was hard to set an expectation for how tumbling would go, but we’re really proud of how far they’ve come,” she said. “They took it and ran with it. It took two weeks to add the tumbling back into our routine. They’re also state champions in the non-tumbling division.”

Ogle, and the three other coaches, were all proud of the team’s efforts all season leading up to the big competition in Anaheim. She believes the team’s qualification for the tournament is a strong show of the hard work the girls have put in since November.

“The girls have worked really hard for this season,” Coral Ogle said. “Being able to be at nationals and go against all of these amazing teams is a blessing itself. Being able to bring these girls to nationals, especially in their first year, is a really rewarding feeling — especially as retired cheerleaders. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”