Preparing to shine, It’s pep rally time

Photo credit: Eden Ryan

As Homecoming season approaches at a fast pace, cheerleaders must tighten their bows and master their 5, 6, 7’s, and 8’s. In order to create a crowd pleasing routine due to the pressure of an early pep rally date, Coach Bri Gress explains that, “being focused and ready to learn is essential.”

  There are seven freshman on the team this year which is causing a wave of excitement throughout the four coaches: Bri Gress, Donna Ryan, Cindy Ebelein, and Christie Crawford-Smick. Ebelein explains that, “coaching is such a fun experience because every single one of these ladies are so talented.” Qualifying for much higher scores this year, the team is working to gain impressive tumbling skills and difficult stunts. They are hoping to be seen as tough competition to high-scoring cheer teams such as Bel Air and C Milton.

    Upperclassmen are also very exuberant about the talent of the Freshmen this season. Senior Madi Gress exclaims that, “ It can often be difficult to have new cheerleaders and still have the amount of points that we need to score high.” The team all agrees that there is a lot of cooperation and teamwork this year in order to create the best routine possible.

     With stressful nature of pep rally preparation causes many members of the team to focus on improving their mistakes. Sophomore, Tori Simms explains, “only having two minutes and thirty seconds to redeem mistakes is often a lot of pressure.”  Although it may seem very intense, the group of 19 girls are very different but all have one passion, this being cheerleading.

    On September 28th the team will go out and perform their routine that involved a lot of hard work. Gress concludes that, “I’m so excited to conclude my time on the Hawks cheer team on a happy note.”