East Jay Middle School competed in the Indiana State Fair Cheerleading Competition at the Hoosier Lottery Grandstand Saturday. Jay County High School and West Jay County Middle School will continue to the finals in the evening. KAYTEE LORENTZEN / BSU JOURNALISM AT THE FAIR

Breea and Alexus Liette, sisters, a sophomore and junior, were dressed in red, white and blue cheerleading dresses, giant white bows erect on high ponytails.

They stood out in the flock of identical dresses and bows outside the Indiana State Fair’s Cheerleading Competition Saturday. They were at the center of every practice stunt with their Jay County High School cheerleading squad. Every tumble ended with two feet firmly planted. They seemed to attract their coach’s special attention.

“Every girl has that dream of being a cheerleader,” Breea said.

That’s definitely true for her family. Not only does her older sister Alexus cheer, but also her younger sister, sixth-grader Cheyenne. Their mother, Vicki, was a cheerleader in her day and passed down their family motto.

“Good things come to those who work hard,” Vicki said.

As a result, Breea and Alexus live, breathe and dream cheerleading.

“We all put our teammates first; everything we do is as a family,” Alexus said. “If somebody is struggling, we help them, we pump them up and support them with encouraging words.”

Having a sister on the squad means an extra level of trust when Breea is flying through the air over the heads of her teammates.

“Doing stunts is the hardest, so we really have to work together,” she said.

The Jay County squad has made the finals the last couple of years, and Saturday East Jay County Middle School and West Jay County Middle School also competed. That meant there was a huge crowd in the Grandstand in blue shirts with “Jay” in all caps. They erupted in cheers when the Jay County cheerleaders walked up the ramp to the stage.

“The community has always been great, and the people here have always really cared about us,” Breea said. “They always make sure to push us to our limits.”

Jay County High School cheerleaders cool off in their bus before they take the stage during the preliminaries of the Indiana State Fair Cheerleading Competition Saturday. KAYTEE LORENTZEN / BSU JOURNALISM AT THE FAIR

Hendrix Magley is a writer for BSU Journalism at the Fair, a group of 30 students telling Indiana’s stories from a trailer somewhere between the cheese sculpture and the state’s biggest sow. This Ball State University immersive-learning project works for elephant ears.