Before Jorgia Walls stepped onto the mat in Buford, Georgia, on Sunday, Oct. 25, the league president asked a packed arena for complete silence so she could hear her music and cues, according to a People story carried by Yahoo Sports. The 14-year-old was the last girl left on her eighth-grade squad, and she performed by herself for a crowd of about 1,500. She took first place in the small division at the Gwinnett Football League’s Kim Massengill Cheer Off.
A Squad That Started the Summer at Eight Girls
Jorgia is an eighth grader from Lawrenceville who cheers for the Peachtree Ridge Youth Athletic Association, a youth sports group that lists cheerleading among eight sports and sits between Suwanee and Lawrenceville. People reported that each squad in the association is paired with a football team of the same grade. She has cheered since kindergarten, and her mother, Megan Walls, told People the sport helped Jorgia, who has struggled with speech and fine motor skills, become more outgoing and make friends.
Her eighth-grade squad began the summer with eight girls, according to People. Practices started in August in the Georgia heat. One girl told coach Kenya Barbour early on that she could not continue, and another stopped when her mother developed medical issues. Upworthy, summarizing reports from CBS News and the Gwinnett Daily Post, said the seven teammates left one by one because of family and other circumstances. By September, Jorgia was the only one remaining.
Two Options on the Table, and the Third One She Chose
The Gwinnett Daily Post reported that Barbour suggested moving Jorgia down to the seventh-grade squad, which has eight cheerleaders. The Daily Post identified Jorgia as an eighth grader at Northbrook Middle School. Barbour told the paper she had never coached a team of one. Upworthy reported that the coaches told her she could drop to the seventh graders or leave the sport, with no hard feelings.
Jorgia had a different plan. Barbour told the Daily Post that Jorgia said she would do it by herself, and that Barbour answered that the two would have to put in the work. Megan Walls told People the league’s cheer and football programs end after eighth grade, so this was Jorgia’s last cheer off, and her daughter’s reasoning was simple: she wanted to finish it. Jorgia told People she felt happy to try it alone and sad to miss her team…