Student Author:Vanessa B.
What do you think of when you picture a chilly autumn night? Some people may imagine playing in fallen red, orange, and yellow leaves with their siblings or children. Others may think of driving around town with their friends, drinking pumpkin spice coffee, and listening to the radio. Others, however, think of those Friday nights when the Putnam County Football team is tackling their opponents or running the football. But the football team cannot get credited for all of the excitement of those nights, not without the peppy and active Putnam County cheer team.
At any football game, you’d have to be hard-pressed to not notice the girls on the sideline, with vibrant poms and booming voices, nor could you miss the various stunts performed by the team of thirteen girls. Of course, the stunts and high-spirit cheers wouldn’t be nearly as impressive if there wasn’t work behind it. Every week day for two hours, the cheerleaders are pushing stunts one after another. You may wonder why the team would practice for that long on dancing and stunting, but the motivation behind it is the team. I interviewed one of the senior cheerleaders, Chloe T. When asked what her biggest motivator for the cheer team was, she replied with, “as a team, and because of teams past, we’ve set a standard and I think that we always need to be trying to continue to push that standard.” Practice isn’t just sideline stunts and cheers though; routines for other performances are also thrown into the mix.
One of the upcoming performances of the cheerleaders includes the involvement of our bright-faced mini midgets, a group of kids from pre-k to fifth grade. This camp is an opportunity for elementary students interested in cheerleading to show the town what they have learned during their day of cheering. You can watch the performances on September 20th and October 4th at the homecoming assembly.
Much like many of the fall sports, our cheerleaders were working through the summer to prepare for their competition. Since May, the girls on the cheer competition team have been adding into and ironing out their state routine. Be it two or seven hour practices, the team has been pulling all the stops to solidify a spot at regionals. Chloe T., after exclaiming her excitement to see the competition squad compete this year, said “I’ve never gotten to take it in from the crowd’s perspective, and it will mean so much more because I know all the time, work, and dedication that goes into a first place trophy.” As of now, it is yet undecided where the team will perform for regional competition, but there are two locations where it may take place. The soonest performance is October 19th-20th at Staley High School and the latest at St. Francis Borgia High School on October 26th-27th. State competition will be November 16th-17th at Lindenwood University. Wherever it may be, make sure to come and see the squad perform and cheer for them as they mark their spot at first place!
Lisa Stobbe. “Re: Cheer Article.” Received by Vanessa Bondy, 18 Sept, 2019.
Tipton, Chloe. Personal interview. 18 Sept. 2019.
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