by Amanda Harrington

If one looks down the winter cheerleading roster, an omission stands out: there are no seniors on the team. During this time, non-senior cheerleaders use their winter season as a preparation period for next year’s sports season and competitions.

Cheerleading is a multi-season sport but holds two separate tryouts for fall and winter. Since cheerleaders do not hold off-season workouts, in addition to cheering in basketball games non-senior cheerleaders use the winter season as their workout time to develop skills and get ready for the fall season. While sports like football, basketball and lacrosse use the summer months for the athletes and teams to hone in on their skills, cheerleaders use the winter basketball season for this same purpose.

Senior cheerleader Shannon Murphy said, “For cheer, basketball season is like our workouts because there is not a whole lot you can do by yourself. You have to have at least five people to put up a stunt and basketball season is a good time to work on all that. And it’s also hard to work on tumbling on your own because you need someone to spot you and teach you how to do it right or you could really hurt yourself.”

Winter cheerleading season is also more time consuming than the fall season. They have to go to all the home boys and girls basketball games which is a big commitment because there are two or more games a week. “It’s the time when the senior cheerleaders want to start focusing on figuring out college and enjoying the rest of their senior year. Many of the senior cheerleaders do come back and help as much as they can,” said Senior cheerleader Dori Rhode.

The winter season also allows for girls that didn’t make the fall season or were on JV a chance to be on the team and build their skills for fall. Since they do no other workouts before fall tryouts, this gives the varsity coach, counselor Erin McKenna, a chance to see what the girls will be able to do without the seniors and where the team’s skill level is at to prepare the competition routine as early as possible.

Although most seniors do not do cheer their winter season, they are still allowed and welcomed to do so. “It hasn’t become a tradition but more of something that just happens. It’s ultimately the senior cheerleader’s choice. Some senior cheerleaders do participate in winter cheer and there’s no rule that says a senior can’t tryout for winter cheer. Any senior is always welcomed to tryout” said Rhode.