KANE — The Kane Area High School cheerleading team competed in the District 9 PIAA Championships on Saturday, and qualified for the PIAA State Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey on Jan. 20-21.

The squad was among six from District 9 who qualified to compete at states in two weeks for a PIAA state title and among 120 total teams across four different divisions. Kane will represent District 9 in the Small Varsity Division reserved for teams up to 15. Coach Chris Niklaus said unlike other PIAA sports, school size is not taken into account so Kane will compete against A through AAAAAA schools who qualified in the Small Varsity Division.

Niklaus said other area teams representing District 9 at states will be Elk County Catholic (Small Varsity Champion) and St. Marys in the Small Varsity as well as Karns City (Medium Varsity Champion) and AC Valley in Medium Varsity as well as Keystone in the co-ed division. This is the first Kane team to qualify for the state championships sponsored by the PIAA in the history of the recognition of competitive spirit by the agency.

“Going to Hershey is the ultimate goal of any athletic team in PIAA sports and we have finally attained this milestone in our program,” said Niklaus. “The credit goes to the student athletes and the determination they have. It starts at practice and goes to games and on the competition floor. When our name was announced as qualifying, there wasn’t a dry eye in the gym for Kane athletes, fans and fans/other athletes from other teams.”

Niklaus said the team has came up one team short every year for the past several years and “no team deserved this more than this one. I told the girls when we were on the bus ride home, this was for every Kane cheerleading team who came up short and we will proudly represent all former cheerleaders as well as the school, community and District 9 at the state championships.”

Niklaus said the squad will next compete this weekend at the ECC Competition at Elk County Catholic High School in St. Marys.