gameday cheer is ready

Gameday Cheer is about to take on States on March 4, which will be hosted at BWHS. The team is pumped and ready.

They successfully qualified at the OASSA Regionals on February 4, leading them to this moment.

The team, which has 19 members, has been preparing for five months for the competition, working the routine over and over until perfect. Practices take place every Wednesday for two hours, followed by 30 min of lifting.

Each individual on the team has to perform their absolute best for the three minutes on the mat when they compete.

The required routines have complex sections that progress from a dance to the defense or offensive sideline cheers, and conclude with the fight song.

Visuals are incorporated as well: flags, signs and megaphones are used. There are two megaphones on each side of the mats and signs are spread out across the whole mat.

Freshman Cheyenne Abrams said, "I love being the megaphone and jumping around with it."

There are three flags in the back that say “B” “I” and “G” as well as a red and gold flag. Junior Kaitlyn Drake, who runs a flag, shared that the flags really "add more visuals to our routine."

The routine itself was changed several times to make it perfect, making the challenge of learning even more difficult. Sometimes these changes are literally last minute.

Sophomore Kylie Harper revealed that she got a sign handed to her the day of the competition and had to make it work.

"I ended up nailing the sign; it made the biggest impact; it looked so good," Harper shared.

The crowd and spirit is a key factor to Gameday's success. "You have to engage with the crowd and make them want to scream back at you," Krya Holmes said.

If judges feel the routine is not very spirited they will take points off.

As for Cheer's new stunting skills, they will not be included. The team explained that Gameday is a non-building team, which means they do not stunt nor do they do any long tumbling passes. The standing skills that will be thrown are back-handsprings and back-tucks.