Chapman’s varsity cheerleading team is having one of its most successful seasons yet.
Success doesn’t come easy, however. It is the result of hard work and dedication from a group made up of cheer newcomers and veterans.
Natalie Green, a cheer veteran even as a freshman, is a member of the varsity team. She has been cheering for 10 years.
“I saw one of my friends trying cheer and I went with her and I fell in love with cheer,” she said.
Sophomore Claire Loftis is one of the members who is new to the sport.
“My friend in eighth grade was on the varsity team and then she told me it was really fun, so I decided to try out, and I loved it,” Loftis said.
Loving the sport is important because it requires commitment. Although many Chapman students only see cheerleaders at football games, they stay busy.
In addition to regular practices, the cheerleaders go to a different facility each Tuesday for tumbling and often have practices on Friday before football games.
What they do at practice can vary, but a typical practice can be anything from practicing football cheers to competition routines.
“We normally do warm up, full out, and then do it a few more times and then we do reps,” Green said.
Saturdays and some weeknights are often devoted to competitions, a daunting experience for the cheerleaders given the expectations of competitions.
“Competitions are obviously just the cheerleaders and like nobody else, and then you don’t really get like multiple tries,” Loftis said. “It’s just one routine, and you perform and then you have to get scored on all the different aspects of the routine, so it’s just insanely different because we are doing stunts and tumbling (as opposed to what) we do on Friday nights.”
The combination of practice, football games and competitions can wear the body down. One aspect of cheer is making sure that the cheerleaders are in a position to reduce injury.
“It’s kinda something you have to take day by day and figure out who does better in what and rearrange them like pieces in a puzzle so they fit to where they need to go,” senior Courtney Robinson, one of the captains, said.
One way to keep the team safe and productive is to ensure that no one is fighting or purposely trying to injure someone. Robinson takes the lead in making sure this happens.
“I make them bond whether they want to or not, and I make them love each other,” Robinson says.
The cheer team has been very successful this season, with one event left: the state championship.
On that day, the athletes will perform and then participate in a cheer tradition: waiting for their name to be called.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking (waiting to hear it),” Green said. “I’d say a lot of nerve-wracking, but once you hear your name it makes it all worth it.”
