For the first time in Douglas County High School history, the Huskies have back-to-back champions.
County’s co-ed division spirit team won its second consecutive state title Dec. 5 at the Denver Coliseum in Denver during the 2008 state spirit championships.
After winning the co-ed division last year for the first time, the Huskies repeated with a final score of 94 in the finals. They were in first place coming out of the preliminaries. Ralston Valley, which took second, followed with 93.83, while Castle View took third with 93.17.
By the time County hit the mats, they had no idea what the competition was doing or what the final scores were.
“We tried to make sure out team stayed focused on what they had to do,” Huskies coach Nicole Gambatese said. “We don’t really let the kids watch anybody else. … We didn’t even get the kids to the coliseum until two hours before we started warming up.”
County’s athletes were nervous to defend their state title from 2007, the coach said, but her seniors were excited to make school history with back-to-back wins.
“Most of the seniors on the team I’ve had since they were freshmen,” Gambatese said.
Once the squad was out of preliminaries, the biggest chore was to show the judges why they were the defending champions. With so much competition under their belts by this point in the season, a win at state was automatic for the Huskies, the coach said.
“We always compete the kids a lot during this time of year,” Gambatese said. “They have a competition almost every single weekend. By the time they hit the state mat, they’re almost on auto-pilot, cause they know exactly what they need to do.”
Gambatese said the team celebrated what it considers a traditional post-state championship visit to Champs in Lone Tree.
Next up for the squad is a revisit to national competition.
“They are excited to go to nationals at this point,” Gambatese said. “We went last February and placed 12th. … I think they were a little star struck, seeing the teams they always on [television], but now they’re ready to do well at nationals.”