Ottumwa -- Along with their regular appearances that help to generate excitement and a tremendous gameday experience at Indian Hills home basketball games, the IHCC cheer squad is busy practicing for two competitions in March, one in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and the other in Dallas, Texas.

Coach Cyndi Mellin's squad will compete in the Canam College Cheer Competition in Myrtle Beach Mar. 17-19 with 15 members of the Indian Hills squad slated to make the trip. Mellin says the IHCC team members have been practicing two hours a day, five days a week.

Four of the 15 squad members on the excursion to South Carolina will be males and, according to Mellin, the number of males determines the division you compete in, rather than the size of the school competing. So the Warriors will be going up against some much larger for-year schools.

Five student-athletes will be competing in the morning session in a group stunt competition which is a 90-second routine. Three of them will "fly" during that routine and it only consists of stunts Mellin said. This competition will consist of athletes from all college divisions competing against each other.

Then, the entire IHCC team will compete in the afternoon in a 2 1/2 minute routine. It begins with a cheer and then moves into motions, basket toss, pyramids, jumps, tumbling and stunts.

The Indian Hills squad began learning components of the routine last October and learned the entire thing in November. Since then they have added more difficulty -- full-blown dismounts, front-flip dismounts, an inversion pyramid with an upside-down girl on top, more difficult tumbling, and transitions. Another twist up to a stunt was added just this week.

The competition in Dallas, a much smaller one which begins on Mar. 26,, is a reward for the IHCC team's performance in a state competition in Des Moines last year. They did well enough at state to earn a "gold bid" which is the highest bid a team can get and allowed them to have their registration fee waived for the Dallas event.

Mellin came to Indian Hills to resurrect the school's cheer squad and this is the second full year for the team, and the first time they have competed nationally. The Myrtle Beach opportunity came about after the IHCC squad did well in stunts at an August 2016 camp in Wisconsin.

"Both of these competitions are one-day competitions," Mellin said, "so we only have one chance to show off our routine. We hope to break into the top five. We will compete with 15 student-athletes and one alternate will travel with us as well."