Life as a Cheerleader By: Lianna Oldham

The cheerleaders at Hillgrove bring most of the spirit that the school is missing — from performing at pep rallies to cheering at football games. However, not many people know the challenges cheerleaders go through and how they still manage to have fun at the same time. According to UE.org, “School Cheer is a discipline of cheer that involves athletes in a scholastic setting who cheer in support of other sports, most often football and basketball. School cheerleaders’ primary role is supporting the other athletic programs through leading the crowd at games and pep rallies as well as promoting school spirit overall. School cheer teams may also participate in competitions, performing a 2 1/2-minute routine composed of tumbling, stunting, pyramids, dance, and cheer segments.” At Hillgrove, there’s a pep rally for each season. Kierra Black, a sophomore and varsity cheerleader, expresses pep rallies are great way for cheerleader to shine, “Oh, I love it. It's so fun. It's like you get to show everybody like what cheerleading is about and like what you can do. And everybody loves it. So, it's really cool.” 

Typically, in sports you can’t have a team without teamwork and that’s especially important in cheerleading. Freshman Na’Diaya Pressley expresses that a team comes together when there is teamwork, “If you're not working together to, like, learn stuff or do stunts, it's not gonna go properly and like, it just makes life easier when you have teamwork.” Besides teamwork, many athletes struggle to balance school and other challenges they face while being on the team. Varsity.com states, “Both success and defeat present important learning opportunities. Cheer teaches athletes to be proud of their successes, accept defeat gracefully, and maintain respect for fellow competitors, no matter the final.” Amari Dotch a junior states, “I try to get most of my work done during the school day, so that way after school, I don't have much to do.” Kierra Black a sophomore expresses, “Like, backstage when we're warming up, there's a lot of you know, we mess up, make mistakes all because, like, we're not focused, or we're focusing too hard on what we have to do. So, plenty of those. A lot of those.” Both of their words express the struggles that some cheerleaders face when trying to balance two things at once.