Competition Cheer Works Towards Another Successful Season

Abby Schaefer

When many people think of cheerleading, they think of the girls that cheer for basketball and football games. However, at ALHS cheer extends far beyond this. The ALHS competitive cheer team consists of athletes from all grade levels that train to compete in the South West Conference Cheer Competition. Winning the past two SWC championship titles, the Avon Lake High School Competition Cheer team is working very hard to be announced champions once again.

“Our competition routine features lots of tumbling, dancing, and exciting cheers,” junior Elly Rauch said. “We cannot wait to show off our routines at the SWC.”

In a normal, non-COVID season, the team would compete against other high schools in the SWC in November. With many uncertainties occurring, the competition was postponed until January 2021.

This doesn’t stop this determined team to go even further and are now adding the new Gameday Team. Within this new team, the differences in routines will be a more game day theme consisting of a band dance and a fight song along with cheers and tumbling, versus the traditional, non-stop routines that are filled with jumps, dances, and running tumbling. During routines, the team shows their spirit and passion for Avon Lake as they scream at the top of their lungs to get the crowd involved.

“We introduced a new team this year called GameDay,” junior Lilly Grabowski said. “The competition is a 50/50, 50% of the score is from the traditional competition routine and 50% from the game-day routine.”

The cheer team is going for their third championship in a row, and are optimistic about the season ahead of them.

“We are very excited and hope the season continues to go well!” Rauch said.