Payten Priester gains confidence, performs at USA Spirit Nationals

As Sandy High School senior Payten Priester springs onto the mat in Anaheim, California, she realizes she is accomplishing something she never would’ve imagined possible her freshman year: cheering in front of 8,000 spectators at USA Spirit Nationals. 

Priester began her high school cheerleading career her sophomore year, but her experience with cheer began far before that. In addition to several years of youth cheer, Priester has been attending practices and games since she was a baby, mostly due to her mother’s involvement in cheer. Her mom competed in and coached cheer for many years before Priester was even born. This love for the sport passed down to Priester and her mom acts as coach and athlete on the Sandy High School Varsity Cheer Team. 

“I love my mom being my coach because I get to spend time with her,” Priester said. “I love that we get to share cheer together.” Priester is thankful that her mom passed down her love for cheer, as the sport has significantly helped Priester step out of her comfort zone.

“My greatest challenge was always my shyness. I used to be too shy to even talk to my teammates. I probably looked like a weirdo at first,” Priester laughed. She believes that cheer has helped her to overcome her shyness both in small groups and in front of crowds.

“I don’t really get stressed out anymore,” Priester says. “When I did, I’d think about how many times I’ve done my routine and how confident I am in it. The nervous feeling normally fades away after that.” She adds that the adrenaline rush of competing drives away many nerves.

Besides teaching confidence, cheer has imbued Priester with one of her greatest strengths, the ability to be coachable. “I’m always willing to learn and make changes to improve the team,” Priester said. “It’s easy to get cocky or irritated if you’re doing something wrong, but it’s important to listen to what your coach has to say.” She believes the most important aspect of cheer is having the right mentality, one that includes being easily taught and aiming to have fun. 

“It’s important to be coachable when cheering because there’s always something you can learn or improve on. Nobody is perfect, and that's perfectly normal. It’s also important just to have fun and not be so serious all the time,” Priester said. She emphasizes her second point, advising others to “enjoy every moment because you only cheer for four years, and those years go by quickly.” 

Priester is motivated by achieving new stunts. “I’ve always been more interested in doing unique stunting performances than anything else,” Priester said. Priester is a backbase and has no desire to trade positions.

She backbases one of the hardest stunts performed throughout her team’s National’s routine, a liberty and a liberty hitch. It’s the show-stopping stunt to end their performance. The team recently competed this routine at OSSA Nationals on Feb. 13, placing seventh, only 1.5 points behind fifth place. Just five days later, the squad flew to Anaheim to perform for USA Spirit Nationals. Performing well at state and achieving a bid to Nationals are Priester’s biggest accomplishments.

“Our state performance was one of our best performances of the season!” Priester said. Priester was extremely excited to push herself to perform at Nationals in front of a much bigger crowd. She applauds herself for curbing her nerves, as compared to her old self. Priester says, “I’m most proud of pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and doing things I would’ve never expected to do my freshmen year.”