JV Cheer Squad Addresses Increased Participation
October 31, 2018
The cheerleading team has added a junior varsity squad in response to the increasing number of athletes who tried out this year.
As a result of the additional squad, sophomores Audrey Henry and Mia Chon, who were on varsity last year, were designated as this year’s junior varsity squad captains. In addition to being members of varsity, they will lead the newcomers.
Henry said that being a junior varsity captain is rewarding. “I think that all the freshmen on the team are really nice and it’s a really fun experience to work with people, especially those who have never done cheer because you get to teach them things. I think they can go really far,” said Henry.
According to Henry, having levels in the program offers more athletes an opportunity to improve. Designating a varsity squad and a junior varsity squad has also helped to legitimize cheerleading as a sport on campus, Henry said.
Varsity captain junior Bella Brocato said she is happy about this change because it gives varsity a chance to work on harder stunts and combinations, and, without any newcomers, varsity is able to move at a faster pace.
“JV is a learning process for all the incoming new cheerleaders; it’s helping them to get the hang of it and to strengthen themselves and their stunts,” said Brocato. “Having a JV [team] helps them a lot to get through 1 year of just doing all the basics and getting it down so when they come onto varsity, it just will go so much faster.”
Freshman Juliet Diamantidis, who was originally on JV but has recently been moved up to varsity, said, “The more that [the cheerleaders] improve on JV makes more improvement on varsity. I think that it is a great start for cheerleading because it hasn’t been very popular and now more people are doing it.”
“Before, with 1 team, it was a wide range of beginning to advanced level cheerleaders on 1 team. So, I think it will make the varsity cheerleader team more advanced as a whole in the coming years,” said head cheerleading coach Jannine Crow.
The JV team cheers at all JV games and joins varsity to cheer during the rallies. Although the 2 teams normally practice at separate times, they come together on Wednesdays to stay connected.
“I think they have already advanced a lot, and I think we would make a lot of good things come out of the new team,” said Henry.
