Teen Cheerleader Had to Compete Alone in Front of Hundreds. Her 1-Girl Routine Went Viral and Won First Place (Exclusive)

From left: Coach Kenya Barbour and Jorgia WallsCredit: Courtesy Jorgia WallsNEED TO KNOWGeorgia cheerleader Jorgia Walls, 14, refused to sit out her final “Cheer Off” after her squad dwindled downHer one-girl routine last weekend in Georgia — which led her to first place — had 1,500 people clapping along, and now the video is going viral“She’s just a ball of joy,” her coach saysWhen teenage cheerleader Jorgia Walls stepped onto the mat by herself on Sunday, Oct. 25, the arena went quiet.Then 1,500 people started clapping.The 14-year-old eighth grader from Lawrenceville, Ga., had been gearing up for the GFL Kim Massengill Cheer Off since July — but by the time the competition arrived, all seven of her teammates had dropped out. Jorgia competed anyway, as a squad of one, and took first place.“When I realized it was just going to be me, I felt like it was okay because I worked so hard for it and I practiced every single day with my coach,” she tells PEOPLE.Jorgia has been cheering since kindergarten. Her parents signed her up for a reason.“Jorgia has always struggled with speech and fine motor skills,” says her mom, Megan Walls. “What better to help with speech than putting her in something where she’s got to say words?” It worked: “She started coming out of her shell, talking to people more, making friends,” says Megan, 38 and the manager of a tow company.Jorgia, one of six siblings, felt the difference too. “Cheer has meant a lot to me over the years. Building relationships with teammates and coaches brought more confidence to me,” she says.Jorgia Walls as a girlCredit: Courtesy Jorgia WallsJorgia currently cheers for the Peachtree Ridge Youth Athletic Association, where each squad is paired with a football team for their grade. The girls practice every week and cheer at games on Saturdays. At the start of the summer, there were eight girls on the eighth-grade squad. Then, one by one, they left.Practice starts in August “and it’s very hot in Georgia,” explains coach Kenya Barbour. One girl told her early on that she just couldn’t do it. Another stepped away when her mom developed medical issues. By September, Jorgia was the only one left. She had a decision to make: compete with the seventh graders or not at all.The league’s cheer and football programs end in eighth grade, which made this Jorgia’s last “cheer off.” As Megan tells it, her daughter’s reasoning was straightforward: “I want to do this. I want to finish it out.”Still, going it alone stirred up mixed feelings. “It made me happy that I could try to do it by myself,” Jorgia says, “and sad because I was going to miss my team.”She kept showing up on game days, too, sometimes cheering on the sidelines by herself. “The parents in the stands were yelling and cheering,” she says.Barbour has coached Jorgia since fourth grade. By day, Barbour is a registered nurse who works in cardiology at an Atlanta veterans hospital. “I leave work, I go to practice in my scrubs,” she says. She taught Jorgia a two-minute routine set to the Jackson 5’s beloved “I Want You Back,” and the two practiced together daily. “She’s just a ball of joy,” Barbour says of Jorgia.Before the eighth-grade squads took the floor on Sunday, the league’s president gave the usual reminders over the microphone — and then he added one more.“He said, ‘We have a squad of one, and she needs to be able to hear her cues, her music. So I need complete silence when she gets on this floor,’” Barbour recalls. “I lost it then. I cried about that.”When Jorgia stepped onto the mat, Barbour says, “You could actually hear a pin drop.”The biggest moment came during crowd participation, a heavily judged part of the routine in which a squad leads a chant and the attendees repeat it back. Most teams have a full squad to carry it. Not Jorgia.“They all repeated back to her. Everybody,” Barbour says. “They erupted. I was not expecting that.”Jorgia says “it felt cool to see everyone in the arena start clapping. I’ve never seen anyone do that, especially for one person.”In the stands, Megan was in tears. “I was watching her and realizing — this is it,” the mom says. After eight or nine such competitions, “we wouldn’t get to do this again for her.”Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.“She is so much braver and cooler than I was at that age,” Megan adds.Jorgia held it together until the results. She figured she might place third, maybe second. “She didn’t cry until it was announced that she won first place,” Barbour says.“It’s so amazing,” says the teen.As families posted results after the competition, one woman shared video of Jorgia’s routine with the caption “Bravest performance at Cheer Off.” The comments started pouring in and the video went viral.“That was just Sunday, and it’s just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger,” Barbour says. “I hope it just brings warmth and love to everybody.”From left: Coach Kenya Barbour and Jorgia WallsCredit: Courtesy Jorgia WallsThe moment was personal for Jorgia’s coach. She started cheering herself around age 5 and continued through college. She lost the grandmother who was raising her when she was 11 and feels passionately about what the sport gave her. “Just to be able to lend an ear, a heart, a hand, a meal, whatever it may be,” Barbour says. “I know the impact that it makes because it made an impact on me.”She’s thrilled Jorgia’s story is being seen by so many. “With the world that we live in, we just need things like this to happen,” she says. “It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t orchestrated, and to see her grow into the young lady that she’s become has just been absolutely amazing.”Jorgia’s advice to others? “Even if you’re by yourself, just go out and chase your passion and your dreams.”Read the original article on People