Cheerleaders are often the ones you see cheering on your local teams, but oftentimes people don’t realize that there is more to cheer than most people see and we also need to be cheered on.

 Assistant Coach Olivia Cheser and Head Coach Kristen Regalado are both very experienced cheerleaders. Cheser cheered all four years of high school and also was a member on the Shrine Cheerleading All-star team. Regalado was also a very experienced cheerleader and competed for our YC high school cheer team as well.

 “My favorite thing about cheerleading is the amazing feeling you get when you learn a new skill/hit a routine with no faults…These accomplishments really stick with you forever,” says Cheser. The environment of cheerleading far surpasses most stereotypes of the sport.

Cheerleading is often viewed as the gossip team of high school sports but we take pride in how we are represented as a team. “The diversity of our team is much greater than it has been in the past but everyone is very kind and respectful to one another,” adds Cheser. 

Our team has all ages of members two of which are Cheyanna Kelly who is a senior and Ash Brooks, a sophomore. It is both of their first year cheering for YC but they have previous experiences with dance and cheer. It made it much easier for them to jump into the sport but cheer is also a great sport to introduce athletes into a hard but rewarding winning society.

“I really enjoy cheer because it’s not only a way to cope with my anger and frustrations in life but it is also very inclusive. It feels like a second family,” says Kelly. Cheering is harder than you think it puts pressures on your body that you wouldn’t expect but it’s also a very positive environment because it helps you remove your mind from all your stress. 

Cheerleading is an incredible environment and many people don’t realize the great things it can do for you. The sport is stereotyped way too often but our members have worked hard to prove those stereotypes wrong. 

The Tiger cheer team has placed third at the two competitions they went too and are on their way to state. With covid it’s made this season hard because we missed the last two years of competitions. This year we brought in lots of new members and lost lots of old ones but that won’t stop us. 

Cheser states, “This team has the capability to place well in our league. We are a young team experience wise because of new members and COVID-19 postponing our past seasons. I think we have the capability to place at state.”  This just shows that even the underdogs can go far as long as the work ethic is there and a passion is as well. 

Brooks and Kelly’s biggest word of advice for those interested is, “Just do it, the girls are great, they will accept you no matter what. Put in the effort. And you get to throw full grown girls in the air and catch them. What’s better than that?” 

Coach Cheser also adds, “It is a truly rewarding sport that leaves you feeling accomplished at the end of every practice.”