Dear Readers:
Hi, my name’s Maddie. I’m a senior, and this is my third year cheering. It’s my first full year of cheerleading on the varsity team. I decided to be a cheerleader after my freshman year when I went to every game and tried to cheer along with my friends. I love being a cheerleader, and we are all like family on this team. Cheerleading has given me more confidence to stand in front of people and be who I am.
On Monday, we played St. Johns at Spire. The place was HUGE! It had three basketball courts and a lot of volleyball courts. The interesting part about Spire was that they have the old Cavaliers court. I wish we would have gotten to play on that, but we didn’t. I walked on it just to test it out. People told us that the floor had a lot of dead spots so they don’t use it very much.
On Tuesday, we played Cardinal. Overall, the competition was fierce but very friendly. It was an intense game to cheer for, even though we did not win. Our fan section, go-into-the-crowd cheers we did, and the other teams’ J.V. did, too.
On Wednesday, we practiced at the Montville Community Center. We practice there 1 to 2 times a week. We learned a few new cheers and a great chant that none of us could get at first. We also learned the ending to the advanced dance. Even though I have no rhythm, I finally got it on the fifth time. At the end of practice we run and condition for at least 30 minutes. I like that we work out, because being in shape is something I think everybody should do.
On Thursday, we went to El Patron in Chardon for our Christmas party. We did a Secret Santa gift exchange. We opened our presents as customers were seated around us. Let’s just say, everybody knew we were cheerleaders. We had to be the loudest in the whole restaurant! We had a lot of fun!
On Friday, we played Newbury. We got to try out one of our new crowd cheers for our fans. The junior varsity team won, but Newbury’s varsity team had very good fundamentals, and it seemed like they made almost every single shot against us. We did make a lot of 3-pointers. Andrew made a half-court shot at the buzzer, but unfortunately for us, it didn’t count.
At times, the game seemed to go on forever, but the boys fought it out and ended up finishing a lot closer than it was during certain points in the game. They never gave up, and we didn’t either. We kept encouraging them the whole time.
Being a senior, I’m really going to miss cheering for the boys in my uniform. I really want to thank Coach Robin for pushing me to do cheerleading these last two years and helping me with a lot of my cheers and chants. Finally, I am going to miss the Redskin’ spirit, and hopefully, I’ll be able to carry it with me throughout my entire life!
LHS Cheerfully Yours,
Maddie