A typical seventh period practice can be either an uneventful boring day or the most fun a girl can have. The main appeal of cheer isn’t the actual physical machinations of the sport, but getting to go through often grueling tasks with a best friend. A cheerleader’s thought process throughout her day is quite simple.
A cheerleader is sitting in her sixth period class and keeps her eye on the clock. As the time inches forward, she begins to take her jewelry off and put her hair up, and when the bell rings she is the first one out the door. She walks as quickly as possible to the locker room while football players shove past her. Once inside, her ears are flooded with questions like ‘what bow do we wear today?’ ‘Does anyone have an extra skirt?’ “Is coach going to make us run if we’re late?’ She is now dressed and standing in the commons waiting to be told how many mats to roll out. That is where the best conversations happen.
“That’s when everyone’s energy is up and everyone is excited to see each other and see what we’re doing,” said JV cheerleader Mia Brown.
After everything is settled and ready she will go with her squad, her captain reads off the to-do list. What the squad is doing during seventh period practice will determine her whole mood – if it’s reviewing old cheers she will be bored and make quick jokes to her teammate beside her, and if it’s learning a new dance she may get frustrated and snappy. The real fun of practice is stunting. She will break off and be surrounded by only three other people, and these three people will work with her as if they all share a brain. The amount of trust that all members of the stunt must have in each other is something most only ever dream of.
“My main goal is to prove to my flier that she can trust me and will never hit the floor,” said JV cheerleader Alivia Burt.
The trust that everyone will do their job correctly, that the bases will not let the flier hit the ground, that if something goes wrong someone will communicate safely, but most of all, the trust that these people will always have your back no matter what. Being a part of a cheer squad means you spend so much of your time with your teammates, and in doing so you create a true family. A cheerleader can always count on her teammate to give her a ride, to help her learn a dance, to sit next to her at lunch so she isn’t alone, to tell her when her hair looks bad, to share food after a game, or to simply be there for her.
“These are sisters you keep for life,” said Captain Britton Stratton.
