How cheerleaders feel: A personal perspective
As we start the 2018-2019 school year The EG cheer program is looking great. We spend so much time together we are more of a family then a team. I feel like the cheer program is going to be great this year. We are all hard working student and try are best not to let your teammates down. We love to support other teams had have wildcat pride. I asked some of my teammates how they feel about the cheer team this year, if they think cheer should be more appreciated, and about common cheerleader stereotypes.
“I feel excited about the cheer team this year. At first, we started off on a slow start, but things are starting to click more now. We are becoming more of a team everyday and I’m very happy about that. I think that cheer should be known around the school like football because we work hard and compete just like football. Both JV and Varsity were State Champions last year in 2017. We lift, throw, spin and flip people in the air like it’s easy, when it really isn’t. It takes a lot of hard work. If it was easy anyone could do it. Cheerleaders are stereotyped all the time. Cheerleaders are supposedly the mean and stupid girls who are all self-absorbed. When in reality 1/3 of the varsity team last year were Junior Marshall’s (top 20 for class rank) for the class of 2019. One cheerleader spent a week at Girls State, where they only allow uprising seniors who are in the top 10% of their class to be nominated and select few get in. Another cheerleader went to a nursing camp at Chapel Hill. Also almost all cheerleader are apart of a club in the school.” - Joi Artis, senior.
“I think the cheer program this year is stacked with potential to achieve greatness again. We have more cheerleaders in the program which gives us more depth in our positions; which always strengthens a program. I don’t necessary believe Cheer needs to be talked about more like football but I do think more people need to become knowledgeable about how Cheer works specifically at EGHS. We are a competitive program; not a lot of area high schools are competitive and as a result people don’t understand what we do as a program. I think once people understand what our program includes with games, appearances, and competitions regularly more would start to speak of us more highly. I also believe everyone should attend one competition in their life, especially if they know the team. It makes it much more apparent to outsiders how close competitions are and how difficult it is to win and even more difficult to win consistently as we have been doing recently.” - Mrs. Keener Jones, Cheer Coach
Lastly, I interviewed a JV cheerleader, Kaliyah Frazier. “Cheer is not easy I think it’s hard. We have to lift girls in the air and catch them. We go through long practices and games working hard and sweating. Cheer is not all fun in games and people can really get hurt if you don’t do the stunts right. I feel like cheer should be talked about more like football because we are a sport too. We practice and compete just like they do. I feel this is going to be a great cheer season.”
