BHS Cheerleading

BHS Cheerleaders: The Team Behind the Teams

BY SHEILA HELMBERGER PHOTOS BY JOEY HALVORSON

Cheerleaders have been a mainstay at high school sporting events for decades. They rally the student body to stand behind their teams and encourage them to play hard. Today’s cheerleaders are talented and impressive athletes themselves.

Carissa Ulness has been the head coach of the Brainerd High School cheerleaders for four years. She is enthusiastic about growing the program and would love to see even more students get involved. The teams are busy. Between practices, camps and a bonus competition option for some members, they stay active all year around.

While Brainerd has a cheer team that leads the chants on the sidelines of the football games, they also have an active competition team. Sideline cheerleading is sanctioned by the Minnesota State High School League, but the competition cheer team is not. That means they are not restricted by a set season, and it allows them to participate all year which gives them the necessary time to hone the skills and stunts the team needs to learn to perform.

I’m trying to continue growing the program. I would love to add a junior high team, which would make fifth and sixth graders eligible. It means more kids can be involved.

- Carissa Ulness

Head Coach, BHS Cheerleading

Since becoming head coach, Ulness has been doing a little behind-the-scenes cheerleading herself on behalf of her teams. Cheer team divisions include varsity, junior varsity, junior high, middle school and elementary as well as tumbling and nontumbling, co-ed and non-co-ed.

“I’m trying to continue growing the program,” she says. “I would love to add a junior high team, which would make fifth and sixth graders eligible. It means more kids can be involved. When we do our kids’ camps each spring and fall for kindergarteners through sixth graders, we have tons of participants.”

“This year I’m running the program a bit different. In the past the same students had to do both sideline and competition. This year cheerleaders that want to just perform on the sidelines will be able to do that. Those on the competition team, however, will still perform on the sidelines at games.”

The last three years the competition cheer team has competed at nationals. Last year the team placed second in the nation after competing virtually in the co-ed non-tumbling division.

For the first time in Brainerd history the team has a male athlete. Ulness’s son, Zach will be a senior this year and is in his fifth year on the team. “It’s very physical,” she says. “It’s hard for a male to look at a cheerleading program and realize that it’s okay to be a male athlete in the cheer world,” she said. Males are not required to jump or do arm movements, and instead get the use of a megaphone and play an important role in stunts. “There are lots of male cheerleaders and it can lead to opportunities in college. The University of Minnesota, University of Kentucky and Moorhead State are looking for men to participate in their college programs. We’re always open to letting someone come in for a day or two and check us out. Males and females can both come and see what we’re about.”

The recent remodel at the high school may open the possibility of the Brainerd team playing host to a cheer competition in the future. The host team needs two gymnasiums with space for warm-up and competing and it has those now. “That means,” Ulness said excitedly, “community members will be able to come in, too, and see what we do.”

The varsity competition team travels each summer to masters camp at Wisconsin Dells, a three-day camp for cheer teams that have gone to nationals.

This year Ulness offered a summer skills camp for fifth through 12th graders. “They came in during the summer two days a week to learn cheer skills and our cheers for the football season.” Another camp, the week of homecoming, will offer interested students a chance to perform at the football game.

Tryouts for the cheerleading team take place each April. The results determine which team a student will be on.

Students must be in eighth grade or higher to be on the competition team.

On the sidelines, Ulness says it would be fun to see a partnership between the popular high school superfans and the cheer team. They have partnered in the past and said it was fun for the student body to see.

“I absolutely love what I do,” Ulness said. At the state level she is part of the Minnesota Cheer Coaches Association Board and serves as the Cheer-Off and Membership Director.

“If someone just wants to cheer at football games, reach out to me. If you just want to cheer for basketball or hockey, let’s work to start a basketball or hockey squad. I’m here to build the program. If there are students out there with ideas and suggestions that want to be involved, I’m here to listen,” said Ulness.