Cheer Team - Plan for the Future or a High School Sport?
By Jula Arnold
A lot of students watch the football games on Friday and see the cheerleaders cheer in the breaks and during the game. But not a lot of people think about cheer as a serious sport which you can do professionally after school. Cheerleaders are more than just girls in pretty uniforms. After their performance on Friday a lot of students were really impressed and curious about the team, their coach, their practices and who teaches them new choreographies.
In the interview with the cheer captains seniors Ellie Elms and Isa Rojas who cheered at around 36 games in total since their freshman year said that the cheer team is like a community. Elms said, “I do cheer to see my friends everyday and have fun with them.” Other cheerleaders gave similar answers to that question. That shows that most cheerleaders at MBHS see Cheer as a sport, not a profession they want to do in the future.
“We were pretty happy with our performance on Friday because we have practiced that a lot,” the captains said. “The coolest thing about the choreographies is seeing them put into action and have a whole squad pumping up the school spirit,” Elms said.
Elms’ inspiration regarding cheer would be last year’s cheer captain, Iris Ratzat. Elms remembers her as an amazing cheerleader who had the power to motivate other people.
One of the hardest things as a Cheerleader is choosing the song to dance to, not the choreography itself. It is a process which depends on many things like the theme of the game, if it’s appropriate, and the proper execution of certain types of stunts or dances. One of the songs they chose for this match on Friday for the beach game is “Miami” by Will Smith.
This season, the cheerleaders have cheered at five games so far. The team consists of 24 girls in total with 14 girls on varsity and 10 girls on JV. Overall, the only thing the cheer captains said the team has to work on is their strength in the weight room to improve their stunts.