POCATELLO — The Highland High School cheerleaders have won the 6A State Championship, continuing a nearly 15-year streak.

Jessica Gallup, coach of the Highland cheerleaders, said she’s extremely proud of her team of 39 girls for their recent performance at the state competition in Boise.

“It was absolutely amazing,” Gallup said.

Gallup said one of the impressive things about this year’s Highland cheer team is that a lot of the girls on the varsity squad are freshmen. She said it was amazing that they were that successful, winning another state title, when many of the team’s cheerleaders are so young.

“It was a huge accomplishment,” Gallup said. “Half of the varsity team is freshmen.”

The Highland cheerleaders have won almost every state championship they’ve competed in for about 15 years. Gallup is proud that they were able to continue their winning ways this year.

Seven of the Highland cheerleaders are seniors and have won the state title every year of their high school careers.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Gallup said. “It gets harder every year. The pressure builds.”

There are three different routines Idaho’s high school cheer teams compete in at the state championship: show, pom and sideline.

The show routine is worth 100 points and the pom and sideline routines are each worth 50 points.

“They took first in all three routines,” Gallup said about her team. “They also took the academic championship with an average GPA of 3.77.”

Gallup said the best part about the competition was watching Highland’s cheerleaders come together and push through their routines even though they were nervous.

“There were a lot of tears of fear before we went out,” Gallup said. “They did great. Seeing them push through was amazing.”

Now that the state playoffs are over, the Highland cheerleaders get a six-week break before they start preparing for next year.

“Cheer is a full-time activity,” Gallup said.