Girls every year try out for cheerleading, and on May 20 this year the Lakeland middle school students are getting their chance to try out for the high school cheer team.
It may seem that these girls (or boys) have only prepared a couple weeks by practicing a specific dance, but in reality, they have been practicing ever since they first joined the cheerleading team in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade.
In addition, many of these girls have been preparing themselves for years to come. A lot of cheerleaders have been in classes like balle, dance, or gymnastics, which made them very skillful when it comes to cheerleading.
“Before I started Lakeland cheer, I did gymnastics for 6 years, which helped me with just my tumbling skills,” Ashlyn Karle said.
By plunging into every part of cheerleading it ensures that they are going to perform very well in any activity concerning cheerleading.
Girls who want to try out for cheerleading have to be at the top of their performance in order to make it onto the team. This means that whenever they get the chance they should be stretching or practicing.
“Every day at lunch I would practice my toe touches and cheers,” Katherine Landin, an 8th grader, said.
Even more than that, leading up to the tryouts there are 2 cheer clinics to learn what they should be training for and the dance that they should have memorized.
“Obviously it taught me what I needed to know for the tryouts,” Landin said. “The girl who taught the dance was incredibly helpful in every way.”
Now that the girls have been practicing and preparing for weeks, their moment has finally come to prove themselves worthy.
The girls are set up into groups of three to perform their dance and to show their skill.
Throughout the entire tryout they had to make sure they were giving it their all, but if they were not having fun synchronically then they may not be the right girl for the team.
The couches expect bright smiles on every one of the girl’s faces otherwise they are not showing that Lakeland cheer spirit that is required for the team.
Along with that, the girl must make sure that their arms are pencil straight without any ‘chips’ (bends) to make the dance look as smooth as can be.
The tryouts were almost two hours, and they have officially used up almost 100% of their energy. All they could do after was wait.
This year so many girls were able to make it onto the varsity team and JV team. And the ones who were declined are going to start preparing for next year’s tryouts once again.
Even once they’ve made it on the team, there is never truly a break.
They continue to work everyday at the gym or at practice perfecting every skill that would help make them an even stronger team than before.
Every girl has to learn to work fluently together no matter how long they have been cheering; two years or six, they have to learn to work with one another.
Cheerleading takes an extreme amount of effort and time for everyone involved: both the coach and the team have to be practiced to perfection.
Although high school cheer takes out of the cheerleaders Middle school cheer still required an extreme amount of effort, which makes these girls as ready as ever
Because high school cheer is set to a much higher standard than middle school cheer every part of their routine needs to be at top performance or they may put this opportunity in jeopardy.
Each girl has to find the perfect balance while preparing for the cheer tryouts.
They have managed to push through the academic side of school while keeping up their best effort while cheerleading.
Through every difficult step of cheerleading there is something that keeps them from quitting, something that makes cheer worth doing.
“I was new to Lakeland and it gave me an opportunity to grow and connect with people,” Leah Barnett, an eighth grader, said.
To be a cheerleader is a very enjoyable but difficult feat and it takes an even greater amount of effort than many realize.
Without cheerleaders, who would excite the crowd at a game?
Cheerleaders are so important for events, and as more girls and boys try out for the cheer team they never disappear.
Next school year, this newest generation of cheerleaders will be a part of Lakeland High School’s Cheer Team.
