Cheer team rolls with changes placed on season

Hailee Bowen |staff writer

Competitive cheer had to adapt in a way no other sports team has had to this year — they have to wear masks all the time, they had to compete by video, and they had to audition by video conferencing.

“Obviously there are some setbacks that COVID-19 has created upon us this year, but that has not stopped us from working hard and pushing to succeed,” Hope Gibson (9) said. “Thankfully, when performing our routine, we get to take the masks off because I think they would make the routine a lot harder when going full out.”

Recently, the competitive cheer team filmed their routine for judging for the varsity cheer preliminary rounds. Typically, the competition would have multiple teams together and judged in front of a live audience and judges.

“Yes, practicing is more difficult due to having to sanitize every 15 minutes and when we take breaks, we have to put our masks back on. Yes, it is difficult while stunting because of, again, masks and sanitization to be safe,” Jillian Smith (12) said. “When wearing the masks, I would say it definitely wears us out faster, but other than that nothing is that different,” Gibson said.

The new way of practicing and performing has caused a little bit of a difficult situation for everyone, but the changes were done to keep the season going and their families safe.

What lies ahead for the team during basketball season will present new challenges as the county moves to orange level. The orange-level advisory restricts the number of spectators among other things.

Despite all of the extra precautions, the team keeps practices fun while being safe.

“For our team, we have to wear masks the whole time; for routines, we are allowed to take our masks off. For choreography, we have to keep our masks on, but once we can take our mask off, we have more power, and we are louder while performing,” Smith said.