The joyful pom poms filled with color, you can spot them from the stands, but what goes on behind the scenes? They are the spirit of our school. The joy and smiles that support our school spirit. Cheerleaders and dancers have to practice and memorize their routines but what else do they do? The rising question is are these members working harder than how much they get recognized?
Lyla Olson, sophomore, is a member of the Golden Girls dance team and talks about her experience with practice.
“The Golden Girls practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays right after school, typically from 3:30 to 5:00 or 5:30. We do warm ups and go over all of our dances,” Olson said.
Students get to watch them perform during football games and assemblies but football games are not the only time you can see them. Our cheer and dance teams also have their own competitions just like other sports do. After all the talk about warm ups and practice, what do cheerleaders do other than cheering for sporting teams? They cheer for us!
Our cheerleaders have a unique traditional way of welcoming the new freshman to the school. These girls stand outside of the front doors to the school on the very first nerve wracking day, and they shout encouraging words while also showing off their uniforms that make our school colors of brown and gold, a little more exciting. Even if you aren’t a freshman, being welcomed on the first day of school like that can make someone’s entire day better. These are the things seen on the outside, but what happens behind the scenes?
Senior Addison Stuckey, another member of the dance team, talks about the effects that competing had on her body and also challenges managing her time with school.
“ I broke my foot two years ago and throughout being on the team I have had some knee injuries. The most challenging thing for me would probably be managing my time since we practice so much, especially managing my time with school,” Stuckey said.
Kiara Marshall, sophomore, who is involved with cheer addresses the stress and physical drain that it can cause.
“Cheer is a lot of physical demand, stunts and tumbles are very physically demanding. Another challenge is waking up and feeling drained from games that ended late,” Marshall said.
It can be easy for some to only pay attention to what is happening on the outside, but these girls clearly work so hard to support the spirit of our school. Our cheerleaders and dancers deserve some love and appreciation everyday because they are truly amazing, poms poms and all.
