Flipping, tumbling, and soaring through the air are normal for the average cheerleader.
“We have two comp squads. Traditional (Gold squad) and time-out (Green squad). Traditional is a cheer and then a music section. Time-out is all a cheer, and we can only do a certain amount of stunts, nothing too elite so it is more competitive because it is easier. Sideline or what you see at games is us just doing chants and stunts cheering on the team. When we go to competitions, we compete our routines against other schools,” senior Avery Guilfoy said.
Junior Cadence Mobley talked about how prepared they are.
“I think our team is fairly prepared for our upcoming competition. We have built better teamwork skills, and we try to get along, which we do for the most part. I especially try to maintain a positive attitude at cheer practice because not only does it help me it helps others. We definitely should have had more practices that would have prepared us a lot more, but I still think we will do great,” she said.
Sophomore Colbie Jones talked about what makes her nervous.
“I’m most nervous about State in October. We have upped the difficulty in our stunts and our routine this year, and this brings me especially a lot of anxiety about messing something up being the reason why our team doesn’t qualify is one of my biggest fears and brings me some nerves,” Jones said.
Freshman Nora Bates also talked about it.
“This is my first year on the cheer competition team, and I am pretty nervous. I feel like I have a lot of unrealistic expectations. I expect myself to be perfect, and I am far from that. When I don’t meet my expectations, I’m hard on myself. Something I am going to do to calm my nerves is, definitely talk to some of the girls on the team. I am going to also try some breathing exercises, and I’m going to give some of the other girls words of encouragement,” Bates said.
Senior Abby Brooks has been in the cheer competitions all 4 years.
“My favorite part about being on the cheer team is the close friendships I have made along the way. I also get to push myself to be the best I can be by learning new routines or stunts. It is the best feeling when you try something new and you keep failing over and over again until you keep doing it and finally you get it. That feels very rewarding,’ Brooks said.
A big part of being on the team is stunting.
“My favorite stunt is an inversion. Which is when the flyer is inverted and thrown up into an extension. Something we need to work on is the pyramid. We have added new things into the pyramid trying to add difficulty to get good points for this season. We want to make it to State, so adding difficulty will get us there and hopefully place well,” Mobley said.
Making friends is what Bates said is the best part of being on comp cheer
“I love the environment that this team brings. A lot of the cheerleaders just light up the room by being there. The coaches are great role models. I look up to them as someone that I aspire to be like one day,” she said.
Both Green and Gold squads have a competition on Oct. 5. They have analyzed their competition.
“Our biggest competitor used to be Whiteland, but they moved out of our division. Right now, I would say it’s either Cathedral or Pendleton Heights. Cathedral is in both of the divisions we compete in. We beat them in both and won against them, but they have advantages and disadvantages against us,” Guilfoy said.
