Bailey Prinea was in the first grade when she begrudgingly tried out for a club cheerleading team at the urging of her older sister, Kaceylin.

“I really didn’t want to do it,” Bailey recalled.

More than a decade later, Bailey and twin sister Abrie have grown to love a sport they will continue into college, as the two survived a three-day tryout to make the cheerleading squad at the University of Arizona, where they will enroll as freshmen in the fall.

Bailey and Abrie, along with Emma Rose Estacio, who made the Arizona State team, participated in a signing ceremony on Monday at Moanalua, where the three won state titles in the Large Division as freshmen and again last fall as seniors.

Blossom Machado, who has coached at Moanalua since 2006 and runs an all-star club program, said they are the first three to move on from Moanalua to cheer in college since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic more than two years ago.

Estacio will participate on a stunt team at Arizona State, while the twins chose to do sideline cheering, which is the group of cheerleaders seen at the different sporting events throughout the school.

“I think it’s kind of like a surreal thing for me, just because when I look at them going to college, I still think of them as little girls,” Machado said. “The time flew super fast. They are all exactly the same, maybe just a littler bigger, but I’m just super excited for them to experience college cheer.”

Bailey and Abrie, who are the only twins Machado has coached since she opened her gym 11 years ago, had to fly to Tuscon, Ariz., for a three-day tryout at the end of April.

The sisters were put through a variety of tests and requirements that tested many different facets of cheerleading.

After each day, names were posted to a board to show who made the cut and could come back to continue the tryout the next day.

“We had to come back like an hour after each round and see if we’ve made the cut,” Bailey said. “it was really nerve-wracking to go up to the doors every day.”

The decision to attend Arizona had already been made. All this determined was whether or not Bailey and Abrie would get to continue to cheer into college.

On the last day of the tryouts, the twin sisters were given the best news possible, along with everybody else who had made it to the final round.

The Wildcats decided to keep everyone who was left on that final Sunday and didn’t make another cut.

“It was such a big want for me, because I didn’t know what I would do without cheer in college,” Bailey said. “I don’t really want to stop cheering, and you can’t really cheer after college, so this was it and I wanted to keep going for as long as I can.”

Bailey estimated that, before they went to high school, she and her sister would practice two times a week with two different teams so “maybe about eight hours a week.”

“But when I came to high school, we practiced every day more than two hours a day. It basically took up most of my time.”

They have made the sacrifice pay off. Not only do they have two high school state titles, they were inducted into the Moanalua high school hall of fame on Sunday.

It won’t be long before they find themselves on the sideline for an Arizona football game at Arizona Stadium, which can hold more than 50,000 fans.

“We take (cheerleading) very seriously,” Bailey said. “I’ve ended up falling in love with it. For the tryout, we had to do these dances that were really hard to remember all of the material.

“My sister and I practiced hours and hours for it to be perfect and it paid off. We get to keep doing this and it’s a great feeling.”