Jorgia Walls, 14, Was the Last Girl Left on Her Eighth-Grade Cheer Squad, So She Performed Alone for About 1,500 People and Won First Place in the Small Division

Before Jorgia Walls stepped onto the mat in Buford, Georgia, on Sunday, Oct. 25, the league president asked a packed arena for complete silence so she could hear her music and cues, according to a People story carried by Yahoo Sports. The 14-year-old was the last girl left on her eighth-grade squad, and she performed by herself for a crowd of about 1,500. She took first place in the small division at the Gwinnett Football League’s Kim Massengill Cheer Off.

A Squad That Started the Summer at Eight Girls

Jorgia is an eighth grader from Lawrenceville who cheers for the Peachtree Ridge Youth Athletic Association, a youth sports group that lists cheerleading among eight sports and sits between Suwanee and Lawrenceville. People reported that each squad in the association is paired with a football team of the same grade. She has cheered since kindergarten, and her mother, Megan Walls, told People the sport helped Jorgia, who has struggled with speech and fine motor skills, become more outgoing and make friends.

Her eighth-grade squad began the summer with eight girls, according to People. Practices started in August in the Georgia heat. One girl told coach Kenya Barbour early on that she could not continue, and another stopped when her mother developed medical issues. Upworthy, summarizing reports from CBS News and the Gwinnett Daily Post, said the seven teammates left one by one because of family and other circumstances. By September, Jorgia was the only one remaining.

Two Options on the Table, and the Third One She Chose

The Gwinnett Daily Post reported that Barbour suggested moving Jorgia down to the seventh-grade squad, which has eight cheerleaders. The Daily Post identified Jorgia as an eighth grader at Northbrook Middle School. Barbour told the paper she had never coached a team of one. Upworthy reported that the coaches told her she could drop to the seventh graders or leave the sport, with no hard feelings.

Jorgia had a different plan. Barbour told the Daily Post that Jorgia said she would do it by herself, and that Barbour answered that the two would have to put in the work. Megan Walls told People the league’s cheer and football programs end after eighth grade, so this was Jorgia’s last cheer off, and her daughter’s reasoning was simple: she wanted to finish it. Jorgia told People she felt happy to try it alone and sad to miss her team.

She kept going to games after her teammates were gone. People reported that she sometimes cheered from the sideline on her own, and that parents in the stands yelled and cheered for her.

Two Minutes to the Jackson 5 in a Silent Arena

Barbour built a two-minute routine set to a Jackson 5 hit, and the two practiced together every day, People reported. Barbour is a registered nurse who works in cardiology at an Atlanta veterans hospital, and she has coached Jorgia since fourth grade, according to the same story. Megan Walls manages a tow company.

The competition took place at Buford City Arena, according to the Daily Post. Barbour told People that she cried when the league president asked for silence before the eighth-grade squads performed. When Jorgia took the mat, Barbour said, the arena was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

The crowd-participation portion of a cheer routine is heavily judged, People reported. It normally requires a full squad to lead a chant that the crowd repeats. Jorgia led it alone, and about 1,500 people repeated the chant and clapped along. Barbour told People she had not expected that reaction.

The moment was personal for the coach, too. Barbour told People she has been cheering since about age 5 and that the sport helped her through the loss of her grandmother, who raised her, when she was 11. Upworthy, citing CBS News, reported that Jorgia’s parents first enrolled her in cheer to build confidence and public-speaking skills, and Upworthy said she and her coaches designed the routine together.

First Place in the Small Division, and What Came After

The Daily Post placed Jorgia in the Small Division, where other teams had six or seven cheerleaders each. Upworthy described it as the eighth-grade small-team division and said other teams there had about seven or eight members. Both outlets reported that she won first place. The Daily Post said she took home a trophy.

Jorgia told People she expected to finish second or third and held back tears until the winner was announced. Barbour said Jorgia cried only then. Holly Sammons, the league’s vice president of cheerleading, was in tears during and after the performance, the Daily Post reported, and called Jorgia an incredible young lady.

Megan Walls told People she cried in the stands because she realized it was the last time her daughter would compete this way. She said Jorgia is much braver and cooler than she was at that age. Megan also told the Daily Post that Jorgia started with the league at Peachtree Ridge in kindergarten, so the day felt like full circle. According to the paper, the family has six children, ages 7 to 16, who have all taken part or still take part in the league.

A woman shared a video of the routine with the caption “Bravest performance at Cheer Off,” and it went viral, People reported. A CBS Evening News video published Nov. 4 described her as a 14-year-old who had to compete alone after her teammates quit and said she wowed the crowd anyway. Upworthy reported that Jorgia told CBS News to follow her confidence, skip the nerves and go out and do it. Barbour told People the response kept growing in the days after the event and that she hopes it brings people some warmth.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons