Warren Central Junior High has something to cheer about.

The school’s cheerleading squad is going to compete nationally in Orlando, Fla., at the National High School Cheerleading Championship Feb. 11 and 12. The school is competing as one of a few teams participating in the junior high division of the high school competition.

“It’s mainly focused on high school squads. The junior high has a small division every year,” five-year WCJH coach Brianne Baggett said. “Last year I think 12 or 13 teams competed.”

Baggett has already given her students some advice for how they are going to approach the competition.

“I tell my girls, don’t let getting first place be our priority,” she said. “We’re just going for them to have a good experience and to see there is more than cheering at football and basketball games.”

The group has been practicing since Baggett held try-outs in April. In September, the routine was choreographed by Kamen Wells and that is when practice went into overdrive.

“Once I got my squad and I saw their potential, I knew we needed to work a little bit harder so we started practicing before we even had cheer camp,” she said.

Baggett said the team has spent long hours and late nights trying to get the routine just right. The team competes in the non-tumbling division. The routine is strictly stunt skills with cheer and dance portions.

Some of her students will taking the trip out of state for the first time. The squad will get a little time in between competing to sightsee and enjoy the trip.

“I just want to say how appreciative I am of my cheer parents. Without them and our athletic director Preston Nailor, he’s awesome and helped us in any way that he could, and Mayor (George) Flaggs has helped us out as well,” Baggett said. “We’re not only going to represent the Vikings. We’re going to represent the city of Vicksburg.”

The team was invited to nationals because of their score at the Dixie Cheer Championships in Jackson Dec. 3. The team came in first on top of about four other teams, but it was their score that got them to nationals.

“You have to get a certain amount of score to get a bid to nationals, and we scored high enough,” she said.

Baggett said her squad did not perform well at the Mississippi High School Association competition, where they compete every year, and the team had about a week to improve before the Dixie competition.

“We decided we just needed to work harder. We saw the judge’s feedback, and we only had a week until the next one,” Baggett said. “We went and they just knocked it out of the park.”

Her sister, who is a high school coach in Louisiana, encouraged Baggett to try to make it to nationals.

“Every year as a coach you want to get better and better. You set your goal higher. This year I had such a talented group of girls, I said ‘I feel we have a chance to get to nationals,’” she said.