Cheerleading: Oak Forest takes high hopes to state meet

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Oak Forest will be competing for the cheerleading state championship Friday and Saturday. | Supplied photo

Updated: March 4, 2012 8:11AM

When opportunity knocks, the Oak Forest cheerleading team answers the call.

Earlier this season, at the Jamfest Nationals in Indianapolis, coach Christine DiVenti acquainted her team with the slim chances they had for success against powerhouse Providence.

“I’m pretty realistic with my team,” DiVenti said. “I let them know we weren’t going to win.”

The girls showed her.

While Providence struggled out of the gates, Oak Forest pulled off one of its best routines of the year, taking first in the medium team bracket and holding off a stellar second day from Providence.

“Once I heard the first place score I could have been knocked over with a feather,” DiVenti said.

Oak Forest then took on three-time reigning state champion Lemont in the South Suburban Conference Meet. The Bengals won that event, too. It shouldn’t be a surprise Oak Forest went on to win the medium team Joliet Central Sectional, beating out 15 other squads for the honor.

“We waited for opportunities at some of our competitions,” DiVenti said. “At sectionals, we didn’t wait. The girls came out and showed everybody how bad they wanted it, and it was one of their best performances of the year.”

Oak Forest awaits the state competition, which kicks off Friday in Bloomington. The Southland has a rich history in the event, having claimed nine of the 12 titles awarded in the large and medium classes since the first state meet in 2006: two each for Sandburg, Lockport and Tinley Park, to go with Lemont’s three.

All have earned berths in this year’s state meet, along with Bremen, Marist, Providence, Shepard, Thornwood and Lincoln-Ways East, North and West.

One hundred teams qualified for the meet, 25 each in the small, medium, large and coed divisions. The squads in each class will be narrowed to 10 after Friday’s 21/2- to 3-minute performances, and a state title for every class will be given upon the completion of those 10 performances.

Oak Forest senior Taylor Sticha understands the window of importance during those all-or-nothing 150 seconds as a spectator and competitor. Last season, Sticha watched from the sidelines with a torn ACL as her teammates finished seventh in state.

“Last season was bittersweet for me. I was proud of them and happy to cheer them on, but this year has a little different feel to it,” Sticha said. “I’m back with my team, and I feel stronger than ever. My senior year couldn’t be going any better.”

The Bengals’ excitement was palpable at their late-night practice just days before heading to Bloomington. They’re just hoping another opportunity knocks.