KENT: Houston graduate wins cheerleading championship with West Georgia team

The co-ed team from the University of West Georgia traveled to Orlando, Florida, last week and won the national championship at the Universal Cheerleading Association National Championship.

One of the members of the West Georgia team is Jamie Preston, a freshman who graduated and cheered at Houston County High School.

Nicole Nichols, head cheer coach at West Georgia, said the performance had to include at least 45 seconds of a cheer while the remainder of the time was spent on stunts, tumbling and pyramids.

Jamie is one of only two freshmen on the team.

"She is a great cheerleader and a great team player. She is very talented. But at the end of the day, it's her heart. We look for kids talent wise, but also personality wise that will understand the family aspect to our program," Nichols said.

The team arrived in Orlando on Jan. 15 and competed Jan. 16. Preston's mother, Robin, died Jan. 12 and was buried Jan. 18.

"We had discussed it when her mother decided to stop her treatments," Nichols said. "We talked about all the different scenarios, like moving her into an alternate position so that she didn't have to make a choice."

Jamie decided to continue on due to family -- she and her mother discussed it, and she also had the support of her West Georgia cheer family.

"Our program, we are a hundred percent like a family," Nichols said. "We care about each other and love each other, and Jamie felt that was going to help her through this tough time."

The team attended the funeral together.

"This is the first time something like this has happened while I have been coaching and people ask, 'How can she do it?' But you never know what you can do until you are faced with the situation," Nichols said. "Jamie has been so mature, so confident in all her decisions and in speaking about her mother. I have never met anyone that has inspired me as much as Jamie."

This story was originally published January 28, 2016 at 10:15 AM with the headline "KENT: Houston graduate wins cheerleading championship with West Georgia team ."