Ready for Cheer Means Doing it Young

By: Audrey Longan

Redwood Cheer is getting ready for Battle of the Bands and Cowhide after school in the quad. Younger girls are practicing as well in front of the Front Office, also after school.

Savannah Ochoa ‘19, one of the Captains, said that Battle of the Bands is when “all four high schools get together, all of their bands, cheerleaders, dancers, and colorguards show off what they have and then they kind of pick a winner.”

Cheyenne Lopez ‘22 gave information about their schedule and said that, “we have Conditioning from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm every Monday and Wednesday and practice from 4:30 pm to 5:00-7:00 pm every Tuesday and Thursday….it’s really fun….we do a lot of team bonding stuff and the girls on varsity just make it really fun.”

The coaches and advisers are preparing as well. Rebecca Springer, Cheer Adviser said that she “does a lot of the paperwork, making sure forms are ordered, and direct the coaches on which direction to go” and of course discipline. She even comes in to coach sometimes if a coach can’t be there. “An adviser kind of oversees the whole program.”

While the whole Cheer Squad, including the coaches and advisers, are preparing for these big events. There are even younger girls who are practicing cheer. These girls are not going to be in Battle of the Bands or Cowhide, but they are working very hard. Andy Villareal, ‘19 said these are Pop Warren girls “who are obviously not in high school, but they will cheer with us for one game or learn cheer routines for high school….when they tryout they will more likely get in because they will have the experience.”

Girls who do this program can vary from wanting to see what it is like or dreaming about it for a long time. Jennessa Tyson ‘21 talks about her own experience and said that “I wanted to do Cheer since I was six, so I started competition cheer in 8th grade and fell in love with it ever since.” Girls like her in 7th or 8th grade, sometimes younger, can do this program to help them achieve a dream like this. Once they get into high school they will be most likely more prepared than other girls who did not do this program.

“They’re pretty much preparing themselves to be on our level.” says Lindsey Spano ‘19, one of the three Cheer Captains. Spano made varsity her freshman year of high school. Pop Warren may even help these younger girls to make varsity as a freshmen, which is hard to do and takes a lot of work. This group can really help these girls be ready for everything done in Redwood Cheer, like Makenna Brito ‘19, the last of the three Cheer Captains, said, “We work really hard at what we do….cheering at football games and it’s the best thing we can do for the school, being leaders.” This program can help these girls become those leaders once they get to high school.

“If you are interested in Cheer and it’s something you want to do….you should try out.” suggests Mya Ables ‘20.