The first full week of February posed a challenge for Shen Cheer: three competitions over the span of five days. Could they handle the stress?
These aren’t just regular competitions either. Let alone the fact that the norm is one competition a week, one of these three is suburbans. While suburbans isn’t that much different than any other competition, it is somewhat of a higher amount of stress. Add that on to the two other competitions, and the second week of February might just have been the most chaotic week out of the whole season.
With the first competition on Wednesday, the second on Saturday, and suburbans on Sunday, the team couldn’t perform at their usual Friday basketball game, as practicing is only allowed for six out of the seven days a week.
Just like any other athlete, the cheerleaders aren’t always nerve free and confident all the time. And every athlete who gets stressed has their own way of calming their nerves. Jillian Kirsopp, a junior cheerleader says “ I definitely get nervous before competitions but I tend to just, it’s really stupid but I just re-tie my shoes a lot and make them even tighter, and then just knock on wood a bunch of times and crack my fingers.”
Since cheerleading is a team sport, the cheerleaders are always looking for ways to hype eachother up and get ready for competitions together. Kirsopp also says that the team’s favorite pre-comp song is Maria by Justin Bieber and she says listening to it has calmed her nerves before competitions.
Along with hype songs, the cheerleaders have other traditions before competitions as well. Eve Wheatley, a junior says “Right before we go on, we do a huddle and chant “S-H-E-N, we are SHEN” which is kind of part of our beginning cheer routine.”
Competition Cheer season runs through the end of February. The team has one competition Saturday, Feb. 17 and are hosting the Section II competition on Feb. 24.
