The girls of the Blanchet cheer squad have worked hard since the start of their try outs. Spending their summers learning new cheers to use throughout the year, practicing new stunts and growing closer as a team. These girls stimulate excitement at games and encourage fans of our teams to get involved.

However, it takes a lot of work and hours to put in to be a cheerleader. These girls go through extensive training and spend many hours in the summer and during the school week practicing with each other for new stunts to wow us at assemblies and to build excitement at games.

Senior cheer captain, Micari Williams was asked about the difficulties that come with becoming a cheerleader and some things she had to overcome during her now two years on the squad. “Learning new stunts and working together has its challenges, we had to test and find out who could fly and who should have which position for stunting this year since we had a lot of new girls.”

The girls have tried some new stunts this year that normally weren’t part of their routines in previous years, such as their falling and flipping stunts.

Senior, Eliza Peñalosa, is on her second year on the squad. She talked about things the team overcame this year as a new team with different captains and juniors joining the squad.

“I think everyone was a little skeptical about the cheer team this year because we had a lot of new girls and many people thought we wouldn’t be as good or experienced as the girls before us,” said Peñalosa, “but I am very proud of how our girls are doing this year and we are doing things that we didn’t try last year and I feel we have lived up to that standard. We are looked at as the preppy and positive energy at games and are encouraged to carry ourselves that way at school, but it’s hard sometimes when we have a bad day or the seniors dealing with college apps and other things that were worried about.”

The team has new captains this year, and they seem to be working really hard to help the team grow to their full potential.

“The captains have matured throughout the season a lot,” said Peñalosa.  “They have dealt with difficult situations that have been thrown at us so well and I am so proud of them.”

The girls are continuing to show their passion for cheer through their hard work and dedication as our basketball season begins.