Though her mother was Facetiming her from not too far away, Stasha Smith still had a hard time understanding what her mom, Keisha Young, was telling her.

And it was just the news Smith wanted to hear — her Liberty Diamonds Elite Topaz squad was a national champion.

Smith, owner and head coach at Liberty Diamonds Elite All-Star Competitive Cheerleading, was watching her older team, Luxe, take second as both teams competed in the prestigious CHEERSPORT Nationals in Atlanta.

“I’m still processing. It feels like I dreamed it and I woke up,” Smith said. “It all happened very fast.”

Topaz is made up of 22 young competitors, all between 6 and 9 years old. Three of the team members are 6.

Of that group, Smith said she’s had about 90% of them in her gym since they were 3.

They’ve been with me the longest,” she said. “They take this very seriously.”

Smith said she had a feeling this team might be primed for something special this season with the way they performed last year.

“I kept them together and built their skills up. Once we started competing and saw how they could handle the different level of pressure, I knew they were ready,” she said.

The young competitors are judged on tumbling, dance, stunts, pyramid and overall routine, along with the flow of their program, how well they execute it and how the transition between stunts goes.

It’s a tough enough task for a team such as Luxe, with competitors ranging in age from 8 to 16. To have her younger squad perform that flawlessly was rewarding.

“Technique wins every single time,” Smith said. “This is the cleanest they have ever been. Clean alone is a lot to train. You have to get them all on the exact same page. You have to keep them in sync for two minutes.”

It also was validation for Smith, who is one of the few Black gym owners competing at a national level.

“That’s what makes it a million times more special for us,” she said. “If there is a cheer gym, it is probably not going to be owned by a Black woman. There were competitions where we were the only Black team there. We act like we don’t care about that.”

Over the years, her teams have become diverse, reflecting the Hinesville and Liberty County community. Smith has found a community with other Black cheer gym owners, and one opened his doors to Liberty Diamonds Elite so they could practice before CHEERSPORT.

“We got to practice at a Black-owned facility and it is probably the best cheer gym in the country,” she said. “For them to know who we are and to allow us to use their gym for practice was another item off our bucket list. We have started communicating and keeping each other close knit.”

Her young charges go through camps of seven to eight hours long once or twice during the summer, and they are at her gym Monday through Thursday from 5:30-8:30 each night. Practices are two to three times a week, with two hours each practice.

Smith started on Fort Stewart in 2019 but moved off-post in order to include more kids into the program. She cheered at the Liberty County Recreation Department and when she hit that age limit, she started coaching cheerleading there.

“I’ve been doing it my whole life,” she said. “I thought I’d grow out of it, but I didn’t.”

Competing at CHEERSPORT, which draws teams from across the nation, was a dream of Smith’s.

“That first year we went, I wanted to test the waters and see if we’re good enough to handle that big of a stage,” she said. “The first two years, we did OK. It kind of opened my eyes that in order to be ready for this kind of stage, I need to learn more. I knew where my program needed to be.”

Liberty Diamond Elite returned after a few years off and brought home a first and a second, much to Smith’s delight.

“They’ve never been to CHEERSPORT,” she said of her younger team, “so they don’t understand how big this is. They weren’t nervous at all. I can’t explain to them that this is a huge competition and for us to be here is huge. I knew they would do well. I don’t doubt them.”

As the awards were getting announced in the Mini division, in which Topaz competed, Smith was watching Luxe compete in the Junior division when her mom called.

“I couldn’t hear a thing,” she said. “The phone was going in and out. I’m here on Facetime and I just hear yelling.”

It took a second for the team to figure out what they had done, since the public address system was muffled, Young said.

“They are a special group,” Smith said. “They have the mentality, ‘we won, what’s next?’” she said.

For the staff at her gym and for the kids under her and their tutelage, the CHEERSPORT finishes were a confidence builder, Smith said.

“We’re doing something right here,” she added.

Liberty Diamonds Elite also is the first southeast Georgia gym outside of Savannah to win at CHEERSPORT, as far as Smith can figure.

“We can do all the things all the other big gyms are doing up there,” she said. “It doesn’t mean we don’t have a purpose and provide a safe space for them in the building we’re in now. Just because we’re from Hinesville, that means nothing. Small areas can have successful cheer gyms.”

Topaz is now nationally- ranked and Smith also took heart from Luxe’s second- place finish in which they “hit zero,” meaning they didn’t make any mistakes.

“I’m glad they chose CHEERSPORT to hit zero,” she said.

While Topaz had been performing well, it had been more of a struggle at competitions for her Junior group.

“The older group had been having a tough season, and that was their best performance of the season,” Smith said.

The teams are only about halfway through their competitive season. Topaz is set to go to Nashville, Tennessee, and Luxe is going to the Allstar World Championship in April. Some of the major competitions also take place during important school tests, such as the Milestones, but the school system has worked with Smith and her kids to enable them to go to the meets.

“To say we’re ranked nationally was historic for us,” she said. “A lot of things are happening for us. For them to win CHEERSPORT, that is a huge deal.”