Athletics are a huge part of the Liberty community, and don’t often go overlooked. But Unified sports, and particularly Unified cheer, rarely get the attention they deserve.
“Unified cheer is a combination of LRC2, or special education, students and general education students working together on a team,” head coach Julie Hicks said.
Cheer is just one of the unified programs we have here at Liberty. There are also Unified soccer, basketball, and robotics teams that not everybody is aware of.
“Students can help Unified cheer by sharing information about it and coming to events,” Hicks said.

“This program adds a place where all students can get together and participate in cheer,” team member Lillian Cedergreen said.
Although the Unified cheer program is new to liberty, the team has already been getting ready for their first competition season.
“Unified cheer has been and will continue to be successful. All the help that we have gotten will make unified cheer stay a program here at Liberty,” team member Evelyn Nuñez said.
Unified teams provide ways for general education students and LRC2 students to connect, which is why it is so important to have a variety of teams accessible to students. These unified programs are a great way for all students to interact with each other and learn to work together.
“We get to work as a group to get ready for competition,” team member Hannah Jorgeson said. Unified cheer is now competing in nationwide programs, and is practicing up to twice a week in order to prepare for competitions.
“We are traveling to Wenatchee, where Special Olympics is putting on a competition, so it is a big deal,” Hicks said.
Liberty’s Unified cheer team competed February 28th and 29th and took first in the nation. The team is looking forward to next year’s season.