The growth continued, and so did the progress. Cathedral High School cheerleading continued developing in strong, positive ways throughout the 2024-2025 school year – and that made Jessica Stoner’s final season coaching the program significant and memorable. “We had a great season overall,” Stoner said. Irish Cheerleading in 2024-2025 not only continued to grow in size with 40 total members – the most in recent memory – it competed on a national and regional level while continuing to support the school’s sports teams. This is a well-rounded, school-oriented program. “It was just a different year starting out and actually our strongest,” said Stoner, who will leave the program after four seasons as head coach. “There was a lot that happened. It was a successful, strong year overall.” Stoner said the program’s strong culture began growing in ’24-25 from tryouts through attending camp at Indiana University during what she called a “great summer.” “We thrived at camp,” she said. “We brought a lot back with us that we really implemented. We became stronger at camp this year than we ever have.” Stoner said while reaching 40 members wasn’t necessarily a goal, it reflected the increasing strength of the program. It also enabled the Irish to have two state-level competition teams in ’24-’25 – with a 28-member Timeout team and an 18-member Traditional team. “It was exciting to be able to offer those numbers,” she said. “The level we had this year we were very confident with and excited about when it came to the difficulty that we were able to show through the routines.” A 17-member team finished 19th of 42 teams at the National High School Cheerleading Competition in Florida. The Irish qualified for the national competition with a first-place finish in the Hoosier Regional at Hamilton Southeastern. “I definitely had a vision when it came to seeing the program grow,” she said. “From our summer camp to our involvement spirit-wise within school, our numbers as a whole when it came to tryouts … I wanted to see those grow every year. Then what could we bring to the table when it comes to the competitive edge as an added incentive to being in a part of this program. “I had to kind of get my feet wet and get it to take off in a direction that I was hoping was the right one and a positive one. I feel like it has been.” Stoner said a seven-member senior class with multiple four-year seniors showed “great leadership presence” all season. They were: *Mya Camp, regular-season captain. *Maeve Green, regular-season captain. *Alexis Edwards, competition captain. *Aniyah Stevenson. *Leilani Jones. *Natalie Sukurs. *Sammy Durm. Campbell and Green served as season-long leaders after being voted as “bananas” – a traditional and respected leadership role – by the previous year’s seniors. “They did a phenomenal job all year,” Stoner said, adding that Edwards did a “great job making her voice known of how important it was to bring motivation and focus to practices, to do what we were planning to do when it came to those national and state teams.” Stoner, too, said Irish Cheerleading continued to make school spirit a priority. “That’s what they’re there for and why they put the uniform on and are placed on these teams, to be there in front of their school and to cheer their school on and to lead their school cheering on those teams,” she said. “It's the fun part about it. It's their friends, their peers and people that they see on a daily basis. The reception we get from the actual crowd involvement at the football and basketball games is huge.” And while Stoner called her decision to leave as coach “bittersweet,” she said she believes the program remains strong moving forward. “I feel very happy and I feel accomplished in the sense that I think I've been able to leave a footprint for somebody to step in and hopefully keep it running in that direction,” she said. “I’m excited to see where it goes from here.”