As winter comes around, a new season is starting up for the OHS cheerleaders. The winter season cheerleaders cheer for girls and boys basketball, boys hockey and wrestling. The junior varsity squad cheers for various junior varsity sports. Winter cheerleading looks a little different from the fall season. Instead of having 10 to 15 girls on each squad, they have about six to eight girls on each team.
The OHS cheerleaders began their tryout practices on Oct. 28, 29 and 30. Participants learned reactions, motion drills, the school song, a few chants and dance choreography. To receive a great outcome, each cheerleader must put in hard work and dedication to achieve their goal of placing on a squad. The following Tuesday, Nov. 5, was when everyone came together for tryouts.
Junior Sophia Hanson said, “I’m sure everybody gets those pre-tryout nerves and even after trying out for many seasons and cheering for many seasons, I still get them.” After the tryout results come out roughly two days after tryouts, each cheerleader who made a squad begins practicing every day after school for two weeks. This is when they learn all of the material needed to be a cheerleader.
During the winter cheer season, the head coaches get together with the weight lifting adviser to put together a lifting program to benefit all the cheerleaders. This keeps all the cheerleaders active throughout the season. They are scheduled to do weight lifting after school every Tuesday.
The OHS Cheer team practices every Monday and Wednesday since all of the games land on the other days of the week. Since there are only two practices each week, there tends to be very little time for the squads to prepare together. Every squad puts in huge amounts of work during those four hours a week.
Junior Samantha Nechanicky said, “I think four hours is a good amount of time during the week for practices.”
As a cheerleader, members need to put in extra work inside and outside of practice. They are required to learn about 100 chants and up to five dances per season, along with the school song that they use throughout the whole year. It takes a lot of commitment for every cheerleader to memorize all of the material needed for the season.
All of the different squads have individual goals of their own. The hockey cheerleaders hope to grow together as a squad, succeed in all of their goals and overall grow closer together as a team.
Junior Georgia Schrom said, “[My goal is] to grow together individually and get closer.”
The first home event for the hockey cheerleaders is on Nov. 26, at 7 p.m. at the Four Seasons.
The girls basketball cheerleaders also want to perform at the highest level they can for this season. Some goals they have for the team are to grow closer together and have more advanced skills for the season.
Junior Gabby Maeyaert said, “Some goals I have for the girls basketball season are to have more advanced skills to show off at games.”
The girls basketball cheerleaders’ first game is Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. in the OHS Game Gym.
The boys basketball cheerleaders have goals as well. They hope to get new stunts and learn most of the dances for the year. All hoped to achieve these goals by working extremely hard to achieve their goals for this year. The team wants to accomplish performing at their highest level at each game they cheer at as well.
Freshman Scarlet Vance said, “My goal for this boys basketball season is to have cool and fun stunts to wow the crowd.”
The boys basketball cheerleaders’ first home game is Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. in the OHS Game Gym.
The OHS Winter Cheerleading Squad’s involvement and dedication will be seen throughout the winter sports season. The Owatonna community can watch the girls achieve their goals at basketball, hockey and wrestling events this year.
