Cheerleaders return to sidelines with large team

For the first time in a decade, the cheerleaders will return to to the sidelines to cheer on the football team on Friday nights.

The fans and the team loves the cheerleaders and their support, and now there is another addition to the halftime show besides just having the Chevals.

“The cheerleaders bring back pride and they support us through the good and the bad during the game, not just at halftime,” junior Peter Markert said.

The cheerleaders consist of a group of 32 girls and they work hard to get their stunts and acts right and in sync, and especially for their halftime shows.  They cheer throughout the game and it is nice to have more school spirit on the sidelines and not just in the stands and at halftime.

“We need support from everyone, the Cheerleaders do cool stuff and so do the Chevals. It is the different things that we do that makes it so cool,” freshman Elaina Mankowski said.

The Chevals are a small group of girls that perform the halftime shows at football games as well. The Chevals and the Cheerleaders perform stunts and acts that are very different from each other.  The Chevals focus more on dancing and unity, while the Cheerleaders focus more on their flips, jumps, turns and more gymnastic like acts, while also being in unity.

“I don’t feel like we are stealing their spotlight, just joining and adding to the numbers and support,” junior Sami Chang said.

As the cheerleaders coming in and even taking some of the Chevals from the team last year to join the cheerleaders, many people thought that there would be some conflict between the Cheerleaders and Chevals, but both of the groups are doing great with sharing halftime and coming together for the school.

Johnathan Young from the Stillwater Gazette said, “I’m just in awe of the talent these girls are bringing to this program.”

The Cheerleaders consist of 32 girls that haven’t cheered in high school. Eight of the girls are high school gymnasts and seven of them participate in competitive dance, but none of them have any experience with cheering and they are doing great things without having much or any experience with dancing or gymnastics, but especially not with cheerleading.

When I heard it was gonna be a great group of fun girls I knew I had to take part in this opportunity.

— Sami Chang

“It’s cool to be a part of something new, and especially when I heard it was gonna be a great group of fun girls I knew I had to take part in this opportunity,” Chang said.

Much of the girls success is from the girls working so hard on this new sport, but part of it is also that this group is made up of a lot of girls that are close friends and they just have a great time together and have a lot of fun together. They have been around each other for a while before the cheer team came out so they already have some pretty good bonds and chemistry.

The Cheerleaders and the Chevals have gotten along very well and the Chevals have taken the addition well. They both are a great group of girls that work very hard on and off the field. The cheerleaders have done great things with not much experience and in short amounts of time, and the Chevals have almost perfected their halftime stunts and their unity.