{"id":124216,"date":"2026-01-07T21:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/124216\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T21:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:57:11","slug":"la-jolla-high-cheerleaders-capture-game-day-spirit-with-cif-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/124216\/","title":{"rendered":"La Jolla High cheerleaders capture \u2018Game Day\u2019 spirit with CIF title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"La<\/a>La Jolla High School cheerleaders hold the CIF Section championship banner. (Photo courtesy of Christian Velasquez) <\/p>\n

LA JOLLA \u2013 La Jolla High School<\/a> captured the CIF San Diego Section Game Day Non-Tumbling Small School championship, defeating Vincent Memorial, El Camino and Morse.<\/p>\n

It is the program\u2019s second CIF cheerleading title in three seasons under head coach Christian Velasquez.<\/p>\n

Judges scored La Jolla\u2019s routine an 88 out of 100, edging runner-up Morse to secure the section title. The Vikings improved on a runner-up finish in the same division at last year\u2019s CIF Section championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cCIF carries a lot just because of the name,\u201d Velasquez said. \u201cWe take it seriously. It\u2019s very important, and it sets the tone. Last year, we got runner-up and it (was) a big blow to the team. At that point, we used it as motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CIF San Diego Section championships are open to all schools with a competition cheer team. Teams compete in divisions based on difficulty and style: Divisions 1, 2 and 3 are ranked by stunting difficulty, while Game Day focuses on performance. <\/p>\n

La Jolla, on Dec. 13 at Carlsbad High, competed in the Non-Tumbling Game Day division, where judges score routines using a set rubric. Team placements are determined by those scores.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur routine consists of a band chant, a fight song and a cheer,\u201d Velasquez said. \u201cIt\u2019s a three-minute routine that emulates the game-day atmosphere, which is why it\u2019s called the Game Day category. It\u2019s very upbeat and requires a lot of cardio, since the team performs the entire three minutes. Normal routines in Divisions 1, 2 and 3 are two and a half minutes, so this one is longer and more demanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team fields 19 athletes, led by four senior captains: Emery Hon, Alyssa Willkom-Zigler, Devenney Hurtado and Emma Matheny. Other seniors on the squad include Lupe Galvez, Ella Hall, Maya Schwartzman and Rozelin Cabrera.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team captains set the standard and tone,\u201d Velasquez said. \u201cThey have the most experience and help enhance the performance. We also have a lot of high-level juniors, but it\u2019s mostly the kids who come in with experience \u2014 many from my middle school programs \u2014 who become the leaders on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Velasquez\u2019s cheerleading background includes competing at Calexico High School, cheering at San Diego State University and participating in all-star cheer with Cheer Force in El Cajon. <\/p>\n

He was hired in April 2023 following the dismissal of La Jolla High\u2019s previous coach and assistant coach amid allegations of abusive treatment and retaliation. At the time, parents of at least four cheerleaders alleged emotional abuse, though the coaches denied the claims to the San Diego Union-Tribune.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t let that influence me at all,\u201d Velasquez said. \u201cI had already been coaching and I just introduced my way of doing things. It took some getting used to from the community and the girls, but we\u2019ve settled into a really good flow. Now, three years in, the juniors \u2014 the freshmen who came in when I started \u2014 are used to the routine and my expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Vikings will not participate in the state championships at the end of the month due to the logistical challenges of traveling to Northern California. Instead, they will compete at the Multi-Night Championship for USA Nationals in February in Anaheim.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La Jolla High School cheerleaders hold the CIF Section championship banner. (Photo courtesy of Christian Velasquez) LA JOLLA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[52783,64849,64850,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-124216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-cheerleading","tag-cif-san-diego-section-game-day-non-tumbling-small-school","tag-la-jolla-high-school","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}