Powell Middle School Cheerleading Coach 1

Coach Courtney Groom says the weight of the tragedy has changed her team of middle schoolers.

They were a lot stronger than I thought, but it was hard seeing how hurt they all were.

Terry Shalander is not only a coach, but a mom.

We love them like we love our own kids. So it was devastating for us. And then to have to go tell my daughter. that she's now missing a teammate and a friend.

With an ongoing criminal investigation into Savannah's death, CHEER became a safe space for the girls to talk about their teammate and their friend.

Parents volunteered their homes, and we could go and let the girls sit together and just be together. They could cry. They could tell stories and laugh.

After devastation, the world keeps spinning, and two weeks after Savannah's death, Palmac CHEER team had to compete. The team honored Savannah in their clothes.

Went out and bought blue Def Leppard t-shirts. She loved music and hair bands and her dad loves Def Leppard. But the girls also knew they wanted to leave space for her on the mat. They immediately, we don't want somebody to take her place. Nobody else wants to do the megaphone. Can we do a recording? Does anybody have it on video? After some searching, they found the audio.

So she was still able to keep her place and her position in the program. And it all started out with her yelling out loud, it's touchdown time.

Her spunky personality was the icing on the cake for our squad.

The Powell Mac cheerleading coaches say Savannah Copeland was quiet until you gave her the megaphone. The girls were like, oh, no, I don't want that.

And she was like, give it to me.

She loved to tumble, never missed a practice and soon took on the role of a leader.

She just had an aura, a presence about her that was a genuine and loving presence.