The Last Hurrah

Jill Milnor and the Gavilan Peak Middle School Cheer team rolled to a state championship, after only spending four months together. Roster: Hanna Moss, Haily Moss, Lindsey Brown, Maia Milnor, Emma Daly, Cameron Wilcox, Kinsey Wunsch, Brieana Bulat, Addison Han, Jordyn Means, Jayla Stepp, Gianna (Gigi) Martucci and Skyelar VanIwarden. (Photo by Gina Brown with Capture the Moments)

Gavilan Peak Middle School cheer wins state title with Jill Milnor By Griffin Fabits THE LAST HURRAH

Jill Milnor has an extensive background in cheerleading, an impressive resume featuring stops across the country: a former cheerleader at Oregon State University, the first head cheer coach at Oregon State, years of experience coaching at the high school level.

She brought all that knowledge and more to Gavilan Peak Middle School, leading it to an improbable Arizona State Championship Junior High Cheer title earlier this year.

“I knew we could be competitive,” she says. “I knew we could place, but I thought we could be able to be top five. I was over the moon excited for the girls that we won the whole thing.”

Gavilan Peak competed in the “lower division,” comprised of teams having 16 members or less. But Milnor only had 13 on her roster. While other schools had a full 16 members, affording them the opportunity to employ another stunt group, she had to get creative given what she had.

“Our team had one less stunt group that could go up compared to the other teams. It’s pretty cool to still win the whole thing when we had less kids.”

It took care of business against the other participating schools, winning by a comfortable margin of four points—a sizable difference in cheer.

Despite being understaffed, Gavilan Peak’s athleticism paved the way to a championship. Five on the roster were competitive cheerleaders, Milnor says. Another was a competitive volleyball player; another an avid swimmer and diver. She had a softball player, too.

Of the 27 years she’s coached, she says this was the most versatile and talented roster.

For many junior high teams, the dream of winning a state championship is born in the summer, when schools hold tryouts in May. By July, teams are fully constructed, and in some cases, they would have already spent a week at camp.

It’s a chance to build a culture and set the building blocks for a championship run in the spring.

But not for Gavilan Peak.

Per school and district guidelines, listing cheerleading as a winter sport, Milnor can’t hold tryouts until late October. She had less than four months to produce a state title caliber team—which added another twist to their magical season.

“It’s amazing how we pulled together and won state,” she says.

Milnor, a mother of four and a teacher at Boulder Creek High School, spent the last several years at the middle school level because of her kids, wanting to coach them for as long as she could. Her youngest is an eighth grader, and as her middle school career winds down, so does Milnor’s tenure at Gavilan Peak.

She’s set to become the head cheerleading coach at Arizona Christian University, which has expressed interest in getting a competitive program off the ground.

It wants Milnor to be the one spearheading that campaign.

“I’m moving on,” she says. “But it was a really nice, special way—this last hurrah of winning state.”

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