The crowd is cheering loud in the stands, not only for the Varsity boys football team or basketball teams. They are cheering on their cheerleaders while they do difficult stunts and tumbling on the sideline or on the competition mat. The team worked so hard to be able to accomplish these skills they use and need in cheerleading.
Each one of these cheerleaders started off somewhere. Many of Woodgrove’s cheerleaders have been competing on All Star teams for their entire lives. Senior and back spot Kaylee Stanton shared where it all began for her. She said, “When I was growing up, I was a base. Then, when I got into high school, they had a lot of bases and I was really tall, so the high school coach was like, ‘let’s try you backing’ and I ended up being pretty good at it.”
Everyone can be scared to try something new. Some people get mental blocks, and it makes it hard to execute their skill. They are scared to fall and get hit. Sophomore and tumbler Vanessa Jackson shared how she pushes through her mental blocks when she is tumbling, saying, “When I have a mental block I just don’t have good tumbling days. I won’t get mad at myself or anything. I will take a break and breathe and then I will have my coaches help me through it too. They will tell me encouraging words, and they will have my teammates cheer me on, and that mak
es me do it under pressure.” Tumblers are not the only people who get scared to do something in cheerleading. Even though these positions have something to be scared about they know they play an important role on the team. Bases, backspots, and flyers have to push through and find what works for them to execute their skill nicely and safely.
With the different spots you can be placed in, there are different responsibilities. They can be hard or be as simple as cheering your teammates on from the side. Senior and base Zoe Mazeska shared some of the difficult responsibility that she has as a base. “As a base, it’s your responsibility to put this stunt in the air, but also if anything wrong happens you have to catch the flyer. That is the biggest part. Of course you want to correctly hit the stunt, but you have to protect the flyer, because they are really high in the air and you don’t want them getting hurt on you,” she explained.
There are a lot of ups and downs when it comes to cheer, but it is all worth it in the end. Stanton shares, “I would sum up cheerleading by saying that it is the most frustrating, wonderful, difficult, and rewarding thing I’ve ever gotten to be a part of, and I wouldn’t trade that opportunity for anything.”