BEALETON — Saturday was a successful, yet bittersweet, day for Handley cheerleading.
The Judges advanced to the final four of the Region 4D competition at Liberty High School, marking the second straight year Handley reached that stage. In the final round, the Judges narrowly came up short by finishing third with 252.5 points. They were just 2.25 points behind second-place Liberty, which tallied 254.75 points to secure the second and final state-qualifying score. Jefferson Forest placed first with 259.75 points and Salem was fourth with 246.
In the first round, James Wood placed fifth with 202.5 points, Millbrook and Sherando tied for sixth with 172.5 points, Blacksburg placed eighth at 120.5 and Charlottesville was ninth with 99.25.
Handley head coaches Chyanna Jones and Kelly Huynh, who are in their third season coaching together, said they were pleased with their team’s performance both on Saturday and throughout the season.
“They came into this season with a different level of intensity and desire to win,” Jones said. “The gap between us and second place was 2.25 points. I think that historically speaking, this is the best that John Handley has ever done in regards to competitive cheerleading. So as a coach, it does hurt, but I am proud of what we were building. I couldn’t have asked for more for a second performance.”
“I think they really put it all out there, gave everything they had, and that performance is just embedded in my mind forever,” Huynh said. “I’m very proud of what they did, especially in the second round. They took corrections from the first round and just applied, applied, applied. Our kids overcome adversity very well. You tell them to do something, they’ll do it, and that’s exactly what they did.”
Huynh noted that the Judges especially impressed her and Jones because they had a much quicker turnaround to make corrections to their routine. Because Handley placed fourth in the opening round with 231 points, they performed first in the final stage. The coaches estimated the team only had about 20 minutes to make any adjustments before having to refocus on the second round.
“The fourth team is the first to compete, so I would argue you have the least amount of time to apply those corrections,” Jones said. “So it literally is [that] we get the corrections in the gym and we go through a warm-up where we are talking through those and they have to be able to execute and apply very quickly. Usually we have about a week to apply these kinds of corrections.”
Handley’s athletes were visibly emotional after learning how close they were to achieving their goal of advancing to states. Senior Natalya Green said she’s still happy about what the Judges accomplished all season, even if the final moments stung.
“I’m most proud of my team, and I’m most proud of all of the effort and all of the work that we’ve put in at practice,” Green said. “I feel like we truly deserved this, but sometimes there’s just a twisted turn of fate. I think the most bittersweet moment is going to be leaving this team behind and hoping that the next team will get farther than this.”
Although it didn’t come as excruciatingly close as Handley was to advancing to states, James Wood had the strongest performance of any team left out of the region competition’s final round. The Colonels made strides after a fifth-place finish at the Northwestern District competition on Tuesday.
James Wood head coach Erin Thompson said her team was in high spirits after learning it placed fifth.
“We had an excellent day,” Thompson said. “We really struggled throughout the season to try to see what was going to work on-mat. And today, I thought we really pulled [a strong performance] out. Our stunts hit, our positive attitudes [helped]. We just felt really strong, even through warmups, that today was going to be a good day.”
The Colonels performed first to open the competition at about 11 a.m., which Thompson said can be “nerve-wracking.” However, she said her athletes made the best of the hand they were dealt.
“That was the first time we’ve ever had to perform first,” Thompson said. “You get here and you have limited time to get ready, limited time to see the trainer and go through warm-ups and all the things. So you kind of get a sense of this rushing, but we seemed really at ease through it all. I think that’s ultimately what helped us out through the rest of the day.”
Millbrook and Sherando were both 30 points behind James Wood after each placed ahead of the Colonels on Tuesday. The Pioneers came in third at the Northwestern District competition, while the Warriors were fourth.
Millbrook head coach Nicoll Tipton said she didn’t feel Saturday’s showing was her team’s best.
“We had an amazing season,” Tipton said. “We placed top three all season, but we have a lot of girls sick right now. It wasn’t a definition of what we’re truly capable of. So it didn’t end on the best note, but I’m very proud of the season that we had.”
Tipton, who’s in her second season coaching Millbrook, also mentioned she saw the team make big improvements from 2025.
“We have scored way ahead of where we were last season,” Tipton said. “That’s why we were able to place top three at every single competition. I would say on average we went up around 60 points compared to last year, which is a huge improvement. So I’m definitely proud of the team.”
Sherando head coach Beth McChesney said she was also pleased with her team’s ability to overcome adversity.
“I felt they did their best,” McChesney said. “We have two girls with some [notable] injuries that I wasn’t sure if they would even make it through the routine, but they did. So they did their best.”
McChesney, who made her coaching debut at Sherando this season, previously coached Strasburg cheer for 10 years. She said she’s hoping to do her best to help Sherando’s team keep improving.
“They’ve had a new coach for about four or five years,” McChesney said. “They just need a consistent coach because they’re starting over every single year, and that’s hard for the girls, and that’s hard for whoever the coach is. But I was happy with how we did. We’ve had injuries, we’ve had concussions, we’ve had all the things all season. So they did good.”
— Contact Joe Tuman at jtuman@winchesterstar.com
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