By Brady Cote
@brady.cote
After a long-awaited 2 years, the Springfield College Cheerleading Team made their debut this past weekend at the Pride’s first football home game of the season.
One of the cheer captains, Rachel Perry, says that she is proud of how the team performed at their first home game.
“It was really good to see them finally have the football game experience because they missed out last year,” said Perry.
This semester has differed tremendously for the squad, as they were limited and stripped of a season by the infamous COVID-19 virus. Those experiencing the most change are the sophomores who make up a large portion of the team.
“It’s a little harder on them because they haven’t been able to experience a real season and what it was until this year,” said Perry. “Even with this year we still made changes like getting a new coach so they just had to adjust a lot.”
In preparation for this year’s cheer season, the captains sent out videos of the sideline cheers for the team to learn over the summer, as well as going over what a normal football game looks like.
“We teach the cheers and go over how we normally go about a football game like how we stand, how we go out for halftime, and just the normal procedures,” said Perry.
The cheer team holds their practices on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at night from 8 to 10. This year is looking much better for the team as they are able to use mats, and are now able to stunt.
The team has become so close to the point where their relationships exceed just being teammates.
“They are more than friends at this point,” Perry says. “There are people on the team that I can go to for literally anything at all, and if there is a problem the whole team has your back till the end.”
Having such a positive and supportive family-like atmosphere for the team makes it easier for teammates of any age or class to reach out if they need someone to talk to.
In past years, the team has been trying very hard to get cheer competitions set up and coordinated, but unfortunately, they fell through at the hands of the pandemic. However, this year, the team looks to compete for the first time this year.
“This year we are finally looking to compete and get a routine down to use for the competitions,” said Perry. “Although we don’t have anything scheduled just yet, it is in the works.”
Perry shared how Springfield College has been trying to get competitions for the cheer team for the past three years. The pandemic halted any chance of competitions.
With such good chemistry, the only way to go is up for this team, Perry says.
“It’s only going to get better as we get more time to practice and as the new members of the team get the experience down,” said Perry. “It’s easier to do cheerleading if you’ve done it for years and years, but if you’re learning everything from such a clean slate it is different from a lot of sports.”
In the future, the cheer team is looking forward to the next home game to get back out there and get better each time as they run through their routines.
Photo: Springfield College Athletics