Talent can only take a person so far.

A group of 30 girls took that lesson to heart, combining talent with hard work to land a second-place finish at a national competition earlier this month.

The Hocus Pocus team from CheerVille Athletics, in Athens, recently traveled to Orlando, Florida, to compete at The Summit, a national cheer competition. The team of girls, ages 8 to 14, qualified for the competition due to results at other competitions throughout the year.

The Athens group performed better than even they may have expected, finishing second out of 47 teams.

“I’m very proud of our girls,” coach Pat Belue said. “It’s great to see young people have a passion for something these days. Some want to just sit around and do nothing. To see them actually put in the work and accomplish that great achievement is inspiring.”

The team competed in six competitions throughout the year, performing well enough to get an invitation to The Summit. The team competed once in Indianapolis, once in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, once in Huntsville and three times in Nashville. Their routine lasted 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and it featured jumps, tumbling, stunts and dance.

“It’s a little bit of everything as fast as you can do it,” Belue said.

Belue said the second-place finish at the national competition was a reward for the hard work the team put in throughout the year.

“They put in a ton of work,” he said. “We practice our routine five hours a week, and they come in extra on their own. It’s time-consuming, but it really shows at the end of the year.”

The Summit was the team’s last competition of the season, but Belue said there isn’t much rest before they start preparing for next season.

“We had tryouts last week and this week,” he said. “The new season starts in June. It’s pretty much a year-round sport. We’ll compete again in October, so we’ll spend the summer months preparing for our competitions.”

In addition to the Hocus Pocus competition team, Belue said CheerVille has a senior team for ages 11–18 and a youth team for ages 5–11. The studio is located on Cambridge Lane near U.S. 72 in Athens.