Cheering their Hearts Out

JV cheerleading enjoys competition season, basketball season

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Sami Shyken

The JV cheerleading squad does its “3 o’clock” pyramid during the third quarter of a recent basketball game.

When you go to basketball, swimming, and wrestling games in the winter, you don’t often think about the cheerleaders. But, it fact they’re at practically every Parkway South game.  

“People often think of us as unnecessary, pretty, and annoying faces at games. But it’s not true. We put a lot into cheering and we should get more credit than we do,” freshman Samantha Chapman said

This year the JV cheer team went to state and placed second out of four teams. In addition to state, the team went to regionals and placed in third place. Chapman’s job on stage was backspoting.

This year state was at Mizzou and everyone loved it according to Junior Marissa Redington “It’s really fun because you get so close on trips,” she said.

Though the girls are skilled at cheerleading there are some things they need to improve on. “I think what we need to work on is working together,” Chapman said.

Working together is what cheer is all about afterall! Redington agrees, “We need to improve on communication and being closer,” Reddington said.

The coach, Samantha Shyken thinks they should work on other things as well,

As a team, we could improve by having tighter motions and louder voices at games,” she said.

Just this year there has been many injuries.

“There’s been three concussions, a lot of broken wrists, a fractured patella, a fractured elbow, and a fractured ankle. If you’re not paying attention during a stunt the flier is going to get very hurt,” Chapman said.

Although there have been many injuries they try to stay positive. Shyken said, “This team has worked through so many challenges this year with injuries and setbacks and they still continue to surprise me daily with their hard work and determination,”

Practices are important for JV cheer but, they’re not all fun and games.

“We come in and get to work! The beginning of practice is a lot more productive than the end! At the beginning we tumble, go over cheers, work on our stunt foundations and then start to build up some pyramids,” Shyken said.

Though all the girls on JV cheer love it there are somethings about cheer that they don’t always love.

“The cheers aren’t my favorite part. I feel like no one listens to our cheers. They only watch our stunts,” sophomore Hailey Markowitz said. 

Everyone had something good to say about the coaches. Taylor Farmon is the volunteer coach for varsity and junior varsity.

“[The coaches are] dedicated. They want to make sure we’re the best we can be,” Redington said.

Cheerleading though, isn’t for the weak-hearted. Everyone on cheer thinks of cheerleading as a sport.

“Many people don’t realize how challenging cheerleading really is! We practice, condition, have games and competitions just like every other sport! Sometimes I feel as if cheerleaders aren’t given enough credit for the time, the effort, and the talent that these girls have and deserve,” Shyken said.