Imagine performing a cheer routine in front of hundreds of people at a gymnasium. People are cheering, yelling, and staring. Nerves are through the roof. WMS cheerleaders accomplish this weekly. How much time does it take to perfect a routine?
The cheer captain, Sam Morel, shared that it takes an entire season to perfect the cheer routine. She further explained, “We start pre-season and start to learn the choreo and get the movements down, we need to make sure we are ready for our first game. Usually, we don’t have a perfect halftime routine until our second to last game.”
Although it may seem like a long time, practice makes perfect. However, I wonder how all the other routines are already perfect if it takes a whole season to perfect one routine. Morel added, “We’ve had an amazing squad this year, that had so much talent and potential, we learned so much stuff that I had no idea what it was last year. It’s crazy, we had 7th graders doing stuff that I couldn’t even do.”
7th grade cheerleader, Alexandra Grochowski, shared her experience, saying, “We do a lot of stretching during cheer practice to prevent any injuries. We help each other out and spend around 10 minutes stretching.”
When asked about performing on stage in front of an audience, Alexandra revealed, “I imagine that I’m the only person in the room and that nobody else is watching.”
During an interview, Mrs. Liastro, the cheer coach, was asked about cheerleading and who comes up with the cheer routines. She replied, “For cheerleading, I do, I do the cheer and the dance. But Mrs. Douglas and I look at inspiration from different places and then I put it all together.”
One of the most frequently asked questions is what the cheerleaders should do in case of a mistake in the middle of a routine. Mrs. Liastro advised, “We tell our cheerleaders, If they make a mistake, just keep going and smiling. Because very often, people can’t tell that you made a mistake and the only person who knows is you. So if you change your face and you go, ‘Oh my goodness, I messed up!’ That’s how people know, rather than just smiling and waiting until the next move or a part of your routine that’s next.”
