While players fight aggressively to defeat their opponents, girls dance and stunt on the sidelines to get the crowd rallied up in support of their team. It’s the Faith Middle School cheer teams’ only job, but they put so much time, effort, and passion in what they do to keep school spirit high.

Faith’s Middle School cheer team consists of 11 girls in grades 7-8. The team is currently in its winter season, where they cheer on the basketball team. During the fall season, they focused on the football team.

However, the cheer team does not only perform at sports games. Events such as pep rallies include the cheerleaders to make sure the student body has fun and gets excited.

“Pep rallies are way more fun because of the cheerleaders, and it just gets everyone excited to be here,” said football cheerleader Kelsie Seigle.

Cheer demands plenty of commitment for it to be effective. The girls’ work is not limited to cheering on teams at their games. They have hour and a half practices twice every week choreographing dance numbers and practicing various stunts.

“Cheer is a lot of work and we put a lot of time to the team,” said Faith cheerleader Nycole Oliver.

Many of the cheerleaders can also tumble, or do gymnastics. They flip, backhand spring, and do other tricks during their routines.

Cheerleading also requires the ability to trust each other and make sure the team works asone. Cheer coach Ms. Williams feels that Faith’s team does a good job with this.

“They are really strong and they really get each other’s backs,” said Williams. “They’re very good and very inspiring when they hit their marks.”

Even with all the work involved, cheerleaders can still be close to their team members and hang out together.

“It’s a really good way to make friends and really great to learn team building skills,” said Faith cheerleader Marie Langer.

Of course, the cheer team has a blast doing what they do, and the teams they cheer on feel the effects of their support and encouragement.

“[The games] would be less enthusiastic because they are so enthusiastic,” said eighth grade basketball player John Goecke.

However, cheerleading doesn’t always come easy. It may seem like cheer only comes with benefits, but there are some negative outcomes of participating in cheer.

“There’s a lot of stereotypes that are rude to cheerleaders, how they’re all dumb and stuck up and snobby, but that’s not true, so you kind of just have to ignore those,” said Seigle.

However, people who treat the cheerleaders that way don’t realize what they do for the school. If Faith took away cheerleaders, events wouldn’t be as exciting, and the teams, as well as the crowd, would not feel excitement or school spirit.

“I don’t think I would be as motivated [at the games], and neither would the crowd; I wouldn’t perform as well,” said Eshaan Verma, an eighth grade football player.

To see a pdf version of the stroy, please click the following link: Cheerleading Tori