The 2019 cheer season was more than a typical season for Mill Creek High School’s squad even before its first practices in May.

It was the first season that a person synonymous with cheerleading at Mill Creek would not be there to coach and support her athletes. Roughly one month after Mill Creek’s competition team won the 2018 state championship, Ashley Taube died after a years-long battle with neuroendocrine cancer. Taube got to celebrate Mill Creek’s state championship, the program’s fourth state title in the last 11 seasons, before she died in December.