Cheerleading season: Halfway over but with so much more to come
With Fall sports ending and Winter sports being right around the corner, the cheer season has practically just begun. As cheerleading is a two season sport categorized by football and basketball, the Northern cheerleaders are just getting started.
“This season had a rough start but I think [we are] getting a little more on task now,” junior Taylor Dixon said. “If we had more practices then we could get more stuff done faster and not take so long to learn things.”
Each cheerleader has personal goals they want to accomplish within the season. These goals are set based on what each individual thinks they need to work on the most to help to improve themselves.
“I have mostly worked on building more muscle for stunting and improving my jumps to make them higher,” junior Janae Little said.
This year, the cheerleaders got a new coach who used to cheer for Northern.
“I came back to coach at Northern because it was a way to share my passion for cheerleading and to help females grow and excel as individuals,” cheer coach Awanya Peaks said.
When you are coming on to a new team and there are new and different people from your previous season, sometimes adjusting can be hard.
“There has been some adjustments from last season to this season, [we have had] a lot of bumps in the road regarding how well [we are] getting along with each other,” sophomore Savannah Gallis said. “We ended up coming together as a team to discuss our issues and do some team bonding and now I think [we are all] getting along great and have really come together as a team.”
At Northern there is a Varsity team and a Junior Varsity cheer team. Even though they are separate, they both practice together and act as one big team.
“This is my first year cheering at Northern but in my opinion it has been pretty good,” freshman Riley Horton said. “Some days are harder than others and we tend to disagree on some things, but we push through and try to get as much done possible.”
As these girls have been practicing all summer and seeing each other nearly every day since June, many issues have been discussed, tears have been shed, and bonds have been made. The season is half way over and these girls are ready to put in the hard work and push through basketball season doing better than before.