The fear of the moment turns into excitement for what is about to happen.

With her 35 teammates by her side, she walks out onto the stage looking through the bright lights at the large, cheering crowd. Showing her spirit in her red, black, and white uniform, she gets into position, now just waiting for the music to start, and the performance of a lifetime.

Courtney Schulze is not only one of four freshmen on the Varsity cheer team, but also a member of the Cheer Legendz competitive cheer team.

“I’ve been cheering for three years and I started at GT Cheer, but then I got bored there, tried out for Legendz and I made it,” Schulze said.

Competitive cheer takes a lot of devotion. Her schedule changes weekly, but on average the Legendz team practices about four and a half hours a week, between three and four days a week.

“How often we practice depends on whether we have a competition soon, or not, but we just keep going over the routine again, and again, and again, and we do a lot of conditioning to get ready,” Schulze said.

Schulze practices for the competitions that the team travels to. The season begins in Nov. and ends in April, and many of the competitions are held in Indianapolis. Cheering at level 5, the highest competitive level, Schulze and her team have won several awards.

“We get a lot of first places at competitions,” Schulze said. “We’ve been Grand Champions, and we just got a bid to Worlds, which is a really big deal,”

The team will travel to Fla. this April to compete against competitive cheer teams from 36 different countries. It was their performance in the competition in Topeka, Kan. two weeks ago that qualified them for Worlds.

“They work really hard, and one of their main goals was to qualify for Worlds,” Courtney’s mom, Jill Schulze said. “Now they just have to keep working and improving.”

It takes a lot of inspiration and devotion to keep cheering, and Schulze has her family and friends behind her through everything.

“My brother and my dad don’t really understand any of it, but they still support me and so does my sister,” Schulze said. “But, my mom is the one that travels with me and is always there. My friends are always there for me too.”

Not only does it take a lot of devotion to succeed, but you have to have the technique to cheer and it is the team’s two coaches who have taught them everything they know.

“My biggest help has been my coach, Anthony,” Schulze said. “He always helps me to do my best and has taught me a lot.”

When so much time is spent working towards a goal it is important to still have fun, and for Schulze there is nothing more she’d rather be doing than cheering.