The Saint Joseph High School cheerleading team is an example of a group of individuals who have friendship built into their team.      

The cheerleaders have two separate seasons that they cheer for. The school year starts off, and the cheerleaders take on football season by getting the crowd pumped up. Right after football season ends, they move inside to cheer on the basketball team. The cheerleading team does not stop practices and games after one season. The captains for the 2020-2021 varsity cheerleading team are Morgan Springer, Tessa Berente, Camron Frost, and Emma Zmudzinski. Cheer is an ongoing sport and this is one of the reasons the teammates are close is because they spend a remarkable amount of time together. Instead of sitting in the stands, they get to experience the games by one another’s sides. 

Cheerleaders start practicing in the summer and the new incoming Freshmen start to learn the cheers. The cheer the Saint Joseph cheerleading team starts off every game with is FIRE UP. They yell, “F-I-R-E fire up fire up fire up hey!” The upperclassmen on the team try to teach the new freshmen how to stunt safely and which positions they would fit best in. 

There are 4 spots in stunting to complete a stunt group. The first is base and there are two in a single stunt group. They are responsible for lifting their flyer up and being in sink when they push the flyer up into the air. Making sure both bases are going up into the stunt, at the same time, is a way a bound is made between them. Watching each other’s movements when the stunt is being put up is hard because it all happens so fast, but this is where the special friendships are made. The whole stunt group has to be really close together or the stunt will not work, so this also creates a sense of comfortability between everyone. The next position is a backspot. The backspots job is to pull up on the flyers ankles to release tension on the bases who are holding the flyer. The stunt would not be stable without a backspot due to the way they help out the bases. Flyers are the last part of a stunt group and they are the ones who get launched upward. Being a flyer is nerve wracking when you first start, but having a stunt group that you trust is very crucial. This is because trust is a huge factor in stunting especially for a flyer. On the Saint Joseph cheerleading team, if a flyer is wobbling in a stunt and about to fall everyone always yells, “Squeeze!” to notify the flyer to stay tight in the air. Flyers have to put their trust in their stunt group to catch him and not let them fall to the ground. Due to the trust that is formed, it builds a strong and sturdy foundation to their relationships. 

Besides stunting, another way the team all bonds together is through keeping in touch outside of cheerleading. Having communication out of practices and games is just as important as communicating when stunting. True relationships do not happen overnight, they have to grow and gain structure.

The cheerleading team became secure and safe around one another due to the way they built their friendships. They completed this with the ability to let the friendships have growth and to trust each other. They are leaders on and off the team by including everyone and having new ideas every practice to help better our team. Cheer has a special place in each of their hearts, they show this by always being positive and motivational. 

You will find the Saint Joseph High School cheerleaders cheering on the Indians football this fall and the Indians basketball team this winter. Go Indians!