In just nine short years, with countless hours of tireless work inside the practice gyms that reside at 2555 Preble Creek Parkway, the Prospect Ridge Academy cheerleading program has steadily constructed a Class 3A powerhouse.
PRA High School cheerleading didn't arrive on the CHSAA scene until the 2016-17 school year, their first season under head coach Nicolette Griffith. But in those nine years, PRA has gone to the state championship meet all nine times, winning the state championship or finishing as the state runner-ups in five of the past six years.
This past Friday, the Miners struck gold again when they claimed the Class 3A all-girl state championship; the third state title for the cheer program (2019, 2021 and 2024) during their current run of dominance.
“I wish I could say there was some secret sauce in all this, but there really isn’t. You must have buy-in from the team. What are the girls’ expectations throughout the year? What are our benchmarks? And winning a state championship has always been one of our benchmarks,” Griffith said. “We set weekly goals. We set monthly goals. And we set our final goals to really make sure we’re able to see the progress and know that what we’re doing is all on that same trajectory. If we’re all able to be on the same page, we give ourselves a great chance to come out with a championship.”
PRA approached a grueling Friday schedule with a similar, meticulous outlook. As the first team to hit the mat (8:13 a.m.) inside the Denver Coliseum for the Class 3A semi-finals, the Miners’ first focus was producing a clean routine and ensuring they punched their ticket to the finals.
The team accomplished just that, sitting in second place after the semi-final round with a score of 78.75 (no deductions) and on the heels of the leaders, Highland High School (79.85).
In the hours leading up to the final round at 6 p.m. that evening, PRA was able to analyze the feedback from the judges and put their plan into motion.
“We took the messages the judges gave us, which was to have a little more energy during the two independent skills portion of the routine, and made sure we really hitting on those certain things,” Griffith said. “We don’t dance like some teams do, so we’re asking the team to do even more stunting. But they rose to the occasion. Their goal was to make it look flawless and easy. That’s exactly what they did.”
PRA posted a score of 78.7 in the finals, topping James Irwin High School (75.05) and Highland (74.4) to put a bow on its championship performance.
The 18 members of the 2024-25 PRA High School cheerleading team that etched their names in the school record books are: Addie Kozub, Alannah Gibney, Cedar Jensen, Eloise Gocke, Emma Oxley, Evie Porter, Grace Richardson, Isabella Hunter, Kenley MacDonald, Kyla Eha, Laura Sala, Leslie Dencklau, Liana Tripp, Makenzie Carlson, Rylee Garcia, Sofiia Cherpak, Sophia Heinmiller and Vivian Nguyen.
For the senior duo of MacDonald and Eha, they will graduate from PRA as two-time state champions after also helping the Miners to a state title in 2021 as freshmen.
Strong leaders and intrinsically motivated student-athletes has become engrained in the cultural fabric of the PRA High School cheerleading program. And while there might not be any “secret sauce” to the Miners’ meteoric rise to the top of the Class 3A cheerleading ranks, Griffith has pointed back to a group of five special freshmen in 2016 — Alison Wiley, Rylie James, Emma Sherrets, Sadie Rudd and Samantha Railey — who helped lay the foundation for the Miners’ program fans see today.
“I wish I could say I was the person that pushed that, but it really goes back to my first freshman group,” Griffith said when asked about the high individual and team expectations the team sets for itself. “They wanted a state championship. And by their senior year, they had it. During those first few years in the program, they took on the ownership. As a coach, I was able to step back and let that train go. They started the movement.”