There was only one girl left on the Morrill High School cheering squad after three freshmen left for personal reasons a week and a half before the Nebraska State Cheer and Dance Championships. Katrina Kohel, who was a senior at the time, was the only remaining member of the squad.

Insider was informed that she and her coach, April Ott, discussed the options available to them moving forward. Would they go all the way to Grand Island, Nebraska, a distance of five hours away, to attend the high school dance and cheer competition that lasted for three days? Would they just wait it out the whole time?

Kohel was not successful with either of those choices. After discussing the matter with her mother, she conveyed to Ott that she wanted to make the journey in order to execute the routine that she had worked so diligently to master during the whole season, even if this would require her to perform on the mat alone.

“I sort of knew as soon as I found out I was going to be the only one that I was still going to want to go out and cheer even if I was going to be myself,” Kohel said. “I still wanted to go out and cheer even if I was going to be myself.” “That wasn’t a very difficult choice.”

Kohel shared with Insider that she has been a cheerleader for her high school’s team for the last four years and that she had dreamt of becoming a cheerleader ever since her parents brought her to high-school football games when she was a small child. Kohel is a senior at the high school.

“I have devoted a significant amount of time to cheerleading. Since I’ve always considered it to be a part of who I am, I didn’t want the conversation to finish on that note. To finish on a strong note was important to me “Kohel stated. “I didn’t want to simply wrap things off by going to watch state because I wanted it to come true. I had the ambition to compete.”

The performance, which had previously been planned for four, was reworked by Kohel and Ott as soon as they could. They said that they altered the placards and deleted any things that may prevent just one person from using them.

They said that in the week coming up to the tournament, they put in an hour of joint practice each and every day. Kohel said that she was not anxious nor frightened, but rather concentrated on relearning and improving her routine.

Ott remarked that during the week in which we worked on our skills, she exhibited unwavering self-assurance. “That was just complete and utter self-assurance, and she just owned it,”

The concert by Kohel was going to take place on Friday, February 17th. The previous evening, after Kohel had participated in a basketball game, Ott and her family drove Kohel to Grand Island, which is around five hours away.

At what Kohel characterized as a “hectic” time, Ott’s daughter, with whom Kohel had spent the previous three years cheering on the team at Morrill High School, offered Kohel some much-needed solace.

Kohel said that it “felt like she was out there applauding with me” throughout the game. “Just having her there and knowing I could count on her support made me feel more at ease.”

Her grandparents came along for the ride as well. Her parents, who are the coaches for her brother’s wrestling team, were unable to attend along with her brother since her brother had a wrestling competition scheduled at that time. But, since Kohel’s parents had a friend with them at the competition, they were able to webcast their daughter’s performance on Facebook Live.

Kohel said that she was in a good mood up until the point when she began seeing the routines performed by the other teams on Friday. She went on to say that her team’s coach was “uneasy all the time,” which made her nervous as well.

Nonetheless, she said that as she reached the backstage area, all she did was “take a big breath and settle down.”

“As soon as I stepped on the mat, everything seemed to vanish, and I was left with a feeling of complete numbness,” Kohel said. “I was able to complete the workout by muscle memory.”

Nevertheless, what she recalls most about the performance is the outpouring of love she received from the other teams. Kohel recounted that “nearly all of them stopped to tell me ‘good job’ or they’re happy of me or give me a hug.” This is what she remembers most about the performance.

She went on to say, “It’s almost overwhelming, the amount of support I received from all of them,” and I agree with her sentiment. “Everyone in the crowd was rooting for me to win. It wasn’t simply a single portion like that; rather, it was the whole of the arena.”

Ott said that the event caused him to have “goosebumps.”

According to Kohel and Ott, this was the third year that Morrill High School competed in the state championships, and Kohel became the first solo performer from the high school at the competition. Ott also said that this was the third year that Morrill High School participated. She finished in eighth position out of a total of 12, and Ott and Kohel expressed their elation at that result since it was the highest the team had ever placed in any competition.

Kohel said, “I felt ready, and I felt confident in myself.” “I felt confident in myself,” “I’m happy and utterly ecstatic with how I did, and I’m fully pleased with how I placed.”

Ott echoed the sentiments expressed by her pupil, noting that she was “very proud of her for wanting to complete what she began.”

Ott, who began coaching the cheer squad in the same year that Kohel joined, said that “this entire thing has been very much wonderful.” Kohl joined the team in the same year that Ott did.

“It’s been great to see her learn and develop and succeed through our program at cheer here at Morrill,” she continued. “It’s been nice to watch her learn and grow and thrive.” “We have, in a sense, matured and become more experienced concurrently. I didn’t know much about cheerleading, and neither did she; but, over the course of the last four years, we’ve come to understand it better, and the experience has been incredible.”

She went on to say that “Every one of our life is fraught with difficulties. We’ve all had hurdles. We all face challenges both from ourselves and from the environment around us. And for her to just accept that “I can do this, Coach, and I’m going to go do it” has been nothing short of an inspiration.”