Cheer stunts everywhere but the bench
Every day after school, the Newbury Park High School [NPHS] cheerleading team is in the Girls’ Activity Room, perfecting the routines that the student body knows and loves from their performances. Behind the scenes, the captains of the varsity team work hard with the group to build a strong connection, one that is required from every team member in order to succeed.
Karsen Spence, senior and one of the varsity captains, works alongside her co-captains to create the routines and teach them during their self-run practices. In order to train to their full potential and effectively rehearse, the captains rely on full team participation. “When people don’t show up to practice, it’s usually a challenge, because you can’t stunt if there aren’t enough people there. We need everyone to be there on time and show up every day,” Spence said.
Unlike many typical sports with enough teammates to account for backups and replacements for every position, the cheer team’s routines rely on every single member being present. Winter Sweeney, junior, faced this challenge last year as a junior varsity captain and carried what she learned into this year when she moved up to varsity. “With pretty much all sports, there’s people that play and there’s people that sit on the bench. And for cheer, everyone’s involved in every aspect of it all the time. And so during games, there’s not a moment where someone’s not doing anything or sitting out,” Sweeney said.
Even during practices, each routine relies on the cheerleaders knowing their parts and having previously trained on their own. Chloe Trujillo, senior, feels that it is necessary for the girls to rehearse and go over their parts even at home. “We come to practice saying, ‘Okay, know this dance,’ and then people come not knowing it, and it really slows down practice. [Then]we have to have extra hours during the week, which is not fun,” Trujillo said.
Kiersten Samojen, junior, finds that the bond the girls have with each other is very tight as a result of the key group dynamic. “Trust is honestly the most important thing in cheer and I feel like because we all trust each other so much, we’re very strong,” Samojen said. Because they are all so close, Samojen feels there is never any desire for competition or to surpass her teammates in certain skills. Instead, they are all very reliant on each other.
As opposed to a typical sport with numerous backup players, cheerleaders have to overcome the challenge of every player needing to always be fully present. Spence, as captain, leads the team and ensures that everyone is working together. “Being a good leader [only] helps if everyone gets along and is helping each other out,” Spence said.
