The Tualatin High School co-ed cheer team entered this competition season with the pressure of defending the state title they won last year. In response to that pressure? The team not only took first place at the state championships in Oregon City, but one week later, took home first place in the USA Spirit Nationals championship. They competed in the Advanced Co-Ed Varsity Large division, against varsity teams from across the US.
The team had just a few days to alter their routine for the national championships before they traveled to Anaheim, California, to compete for the national title.
Crystal Corona, the team’s coach, has been with the team at Tualatin High School for the last five years. She’s seen the class of 2026 through their entire high school careers. One of the team’s seniors is Elizabeth Kleps, who said her role was “to keep the team calm” through their fast-paced competition season. Corona and Kleps join us to discuss the wins and what it means to represent Oregon on a national stage.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The Tualatin High School co-ed cheer team entered this competition season with the pressure of defending the state title they won last year. They handled that pressure and then some. They repeated as state champions last month, and then just a week later they tumbled, jumped, pyramided and cheered their way to a national title.
Elizabeth Kleps is a senior on the cheer team. Crystal Corona is their coach. They both join me now. It’s great to have both of you on the show and congratulations.
Crystal Corona: Oh my goodness, thank you so much for having us.
Elizabeth Kleps: Thank you.
Miller: I want to start with a little bit of audio from the Nationals in Anaheim about a week-and-a-half ago. This is the announcement of your win:
Announcer [taped audio]: 2026 USA Spirit National Champions are … Tualatin [celebratory applause].
Miller: Elizabeth, can you describe that moment, the moment you heard you’d won nationals?
Kleps: It was surreal. It was awesome. We had been working towards defending our state title, and it was just the cherry on top. It was amazing.
Miller: It does make me wonder how a cheer team that’s known for being exuberant and celebratory celebrates something like a win like that?
Corona: We went to Disney the next day, so that’s kind of how we celebrated.
Miller: You go to Disneyland. Crystal, can you describe what a cheer competition is like for people who haven’t seen videos or haven’t been there?
Corona: Absolutely. So you get two minutes and 30 seconds to basically showcase all of your best skills, in sync and to music. Some part is to music, some is just cheering like you would see on the sidelines. Then we have score sheets that we get judged on. We get judged on our difficulty, so how hard of skills we do. And then our execution, so how well we did the skills that we did. Then deductions get taken out after. So if you have any safety deductions, any stunt falls or any tumbling falls. Then the teams get placed first, second, third, based off of the final score.
Miller: How were you feeling after the team was done and before the announcements were made? Did you have a sense that your team had won once again?
Corona: Nationals is very different because it’s a two-day event. So the first day is prelims and we’re just trying to make it into finals. So the top 50% of the teams will make it into the final round. And then in the final round, your scores start all over again. So it’s anybody’s game.
Miller: You do the same routine, but maybe you had a really good day the day before and not as good, or …?
Corona: You do the exact same routine. It was funny because in prelims, we actually didn’t have that good of a day because we had to change our routine from Oregon to Nationals. There were a lot of little mistakes and a lot of kids that had never competed at the national level. It’s so different. So I knew that day one was not going to be our best. I was hoping for that because I said, “I know my team. Day two we’ll come out and kill it.” And they absolutely did.
So day two, when we made it into finals, we compete in the placement that you came out of prelims in. So if you placed first in prelims, you compete last. So we got to see everyone in our division before us. So when it was our turn to go, I said, “OK, it’s on. They’re going to do it.” And they did phenomenal. So after that, it’s like, OK, we knew we were in a really good spot.
Miller: Elizabeth, can you describe the routine that you and the team did?
Kleps: Yeah. We start off with co-eds, which is one-manning each of our flyers up to an extension level, which is pretty hard for Oregon.
Miller: I’ve already, sorry, gotten a little bit confused. Putting the flyers to the extension level?
Kleps: Which means raising your hands above your head, standing on a boy’s hands, which we start off with six of those. Then we go into our standing tucks, which is just a standing tuck. I’m sure you know what that is – a backflip. Then we go into our jumps, which is just like a toe touch where you’re touching your toes, and then a split jump, I guess you could call it.
Miller: Are you one of the people who’s thrown high in the air?
Kleps: Yeah, I am.
Miller: You are. What does that feel like?
Kleps: Well, I’ve done it for so long now that it’s just natural at this point. Like I understand how to fall if I’m going to fall, keeping my arms tight and things like that so I don’t hit everybody. It’s a really surreal moment on the national level though, because there’s so many lights and there’s so many more people watching us compared to State and our Oregon competitions.
Miller: You’re a senior. How would you describe your role on the team, separate from all the physical stuff you do, being thrown up and all these amazing things … but socially or in terms of leadership, what do you see as your role?
Kleps: I would say it’s more I lead the team by coming early to practice. We do a leader board before, so we write on things and put our goals for the day, which is really good. We read our champion book, which we’ve started reading. That was really important throughout the season where we would read a book about how to be a champion. And I think that was one of the best ways to lead was by leading for them. Doing things for my team, which I think was being a servant leader. But that’s, I feel, the best way I led.
Miller: What is the time commitment for being on the cheer team? How much time do you spend practicing?
Kleps: On Mondays and Thursdays it’s one hour, and then Tuesdays and Wednesdays it’s two-and-a-half hours. Then Fridays, during our competition season we have run through, and then Saturdays it’s all day. So it’s a lot. It’s awesome though. It’s the best thing ever.
Miller: What makes it the best thing ever?
Kleps: Personally, I think for me it’s just the family that comes with it. I have gained so much confidence in myself and in everybody else. I’ve made lifelong friendships, and I’ve learned so many valuable lessons from my coach, my teammates and things like that. And I’ve learned how to lead and how to be, I feel, a better person overall.
Miller: Crystal, you’re nodding there. You’ve been with Elizabeth and other seniors for their whole time in high school. What’s it like to watch your students grow and mature over the course of four years?
Corona: I was actually just thinking about this yesterday. It’s very bittersweet. I got them as little “fiery freshmen,” I always called them. I knew that the senior class was going to be really special because …
Miller: Wait, four years ago you knew that Elizabeth and her then freshman classmates were going to be special? What did you see in them?
Corona: Yes. There’s just something that you can’t explain when you get a class that comes in and they just have bigger goals, bigger ambitions, bigger visions than even you do. It’s like they knew that they were going to help me take this program to new heights, and I was only going into year two of coaching the program when Elizabeth and her class came in as freshmen. They just lit a fire under me that I was like, OK, they’re going to do something really special here during their time with us, and they absolutely did. They just surpassed all my expectations of them.
The goal always was to bring back a state title to Tualatin. We never thought that in four years we were going to win three national championships and two state titles. That stuff you can’t really plan for. So I always knew.
Miller: It’s fascinating. And had you ever, as a coach … or did you do cheer yourself?
Corona: I did.
Miller: Had you gotten to those heights on the teams you’ve been a part of?
Corona: No, so I actually competed my whole high school career in Oregon as well, at North Marion High School. And my team was very competitive, but we always took second place, second place all the time. Then when I started at Tualatin, it was the same thing. It was like second place, second place, second place, so I was like, “I think I’m just cursed. I think it’s me!” Until finally last year we were able to win it and then again this year at state.
Miller: But you won nationals. Am I right that in Elizabeth’s freshman year, the team won nationals?
Kleps: And sophomore year.
Miller: Sorry, yeah, three national titles in four years. But Crystal, to me it’s actually … it’s beautiful and I guess surprising that what you’re saying is that your students showed you what was possible. Often I think we hear about these super driven coaches who turn their kids into champions. But you’re saying your kids were sort of champions-to-be. You saw that and you helped them become what they were on their road to becoming.
Corona: A hundred percent, because the kids before them had just gotten out of COVID. So they had done nothing for a whole year. And my first year at Tualatin, it was really trying to figure out, OK, how do we get kids active again? How do we get kids away from their screens and wanting to be a part of something? So that first year was really hard. It was trying to navigate that, figure that out. Then when they came in as freshmen that next year, it was like a whole new day. They were, “OK, we’re doing this. Let’s go. We’ve been sitting for way too long, not doing anything. We’re ready.” And I was like, OK, yes, we’re doing this.
Miller: Elizabeth, you said that you’ve learned a lot from Crystal. What have you learned?
Kleps: So many life lessons: to arrive early for things like practice and things like this, to just treat people the way I want to be treated, to have confidence in myself and everybody around me, and how to work as a team. I’ve learned so much from Crystal. She says that we were the ones who came with fire. I believe that she was the one that lit a fire underneath us, and got us to believe in ourselves and be able to finally have the confidence to go and win, and to be able to do what we do. I think that’s what the best part about it is. I’ve gained so many lifelong friendships, and I’ve become so much more confident in myself and my skills. And I’ve just become an athlete that I didn’t know I was capable of being.
Miller: How much of what you just described, do you think is just gonna be a part of who you are as you move into college and adulthood? I mean, even separate from cheer. I guess I’m just wondering how much of this is just a part of you now?
Kleps: I think it’s lifelong. I think I will be forever … I hope forever. I hope it’s forever that I remember this moment, remember winning and being able to have opportunities like this because of the coaches and the staff that we have at Tualatin. It’s really special and I think that I will hopefully be doing this forever.
Miller: What does work mean to you at this point?
Kleps: That’s a hard question. I would say being the best you can be and having the best attitude when it comes to things. I think that’s one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that attitude makes everything. If you come into practice or in life with a bad attitude, you’re gonna go out like that. And I think that’s the best thing I’ve learned from Crystal is commitment and attitude. She’s never come in with a sour face or things like that, because then it would bring us down at practice. I think going into the workforce or going into college next year, I want to come in with a great attitude with it to hopefully then have it come out as a positive outlook and have it come out as a positive mindset.
Miller: Crystal, are you prepared to say goodbye to your seniors?
Corona: Oh my gosh, no. I wasn’t even prepared when the season started. We start every year with a senior retreat. I take them on a senior retreat and we go through what it means to be a servant leader. And in that moment, I was like, “I’m just not ready for this, there’s going to be so many last first of things this season,” even then. So this year really just taught me to just hold on to every single day, even the hard days. The days where … These kids are like my own kids. So there were times where I was like, “oh my gosh, these kids.” But I always left being like, “I’m going to treasure all the moments with them, the good ones, the bad ones,” because I knew my time with them was coming to an end. And so I’ve been slowly preparing myself, but I’m still not ready to let them go.
Miller: Elizabeth and Crystal, congratulations and thanks so much.
Corona: Thank you so much for this opportunity.
Kleps: Thank you.
Miller: Crystal Corona is the coach of the Tualatin High School co-ed cheer team. Elizabeth Kleps is one of the seniors on the team. They are state and national champions.
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