EAGLEVILLE, Pa. – Methacton High School\u2019s cheer team and their coaches returned to Philadelphia International Airport on Wednesday after being stranded in Texas for days because of a winter storm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cheer team stranded in Texas after national competition\u00a0 <\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
The team traveled to Fort Worth for the NCA Nationals, arriving Thursday, but the competition was cut short due to severe winter weather.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They were supposed to fly home Monday, but ongoing cancellations and delays left them stuck at the airport for 18 hours, according to Coach Deana Ellison.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What they’re saying:<\/p>\n
“We finally made it home. We were really excited to get on a plane today,” said Ellison. “As we left, we knew we were heading into a storm, but not this level of a storm,” said Ellison.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sophomore Sofia Buttaro described the experience, saying, “It was pretty frustrating. There was nothing to do. Everyone was getting really bored, and we just slept on the airport floor.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The team eventually secured hotel rooms, but most of their belongings were already checked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We only had our warm-up pants, like our cheer warm-up pants and maybe an outfit we came in. That was it,” said Chrisette Brailsford-Kimber. Parents waited outside the high school in the cold to welcome their kids home as the bus pulled in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellison hugged the girls as they got off the bus, saying, “There\u2019s no kids I\u2019d rather do it with and we\u2019re home now.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parent Christal Young described the ordeal, saying, “It was cancellation and delay and cancellation, finally standby. It\u2019s 11:30 and they\u2019re still there.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Larcene Johnson, whose daughter is a freshman, said, “I\u2019m just like okay. I have strong faith. She\u2019s gonna be okay.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellison said the hotel provided toothbrushes and parents sent supplies like bathing suits, underwear and deodorant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The hotel gave us toothbrushes and Moms DoorDashed us supplies for bathing suits for the pool and underwear and deodorant and all the things a girl could need,” said Ellison.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The coach said no one complained during the entire experience, and it was the first time this group made the NCA Nationals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s journey home became a memorable adventure, adding to their experience at the national competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Source: Information from interviews with Methacton High School cheerleading coaches, parents and students.<\/p>\n
News<\/a>Montgomery County<\/a>Sports<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAGLEVILLE, Pa. – Methacton High School\u2019s cheer team and their coaches returned to Philadelphia International Airport on Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[200,139,539,69,71,70,726,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-99385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-montgomery-county","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","13":"tag-philadelphia-news","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}