When Monday morning rolls around, most students don’t even want to show up for school. But the cheerleaders have to be up and ready for practice, which starts between 7 and 7:30 in the morning. The girls warm up with running and crunches, followed by kicks and jump practice. From there, they practice cheers and chants, and some basic stunting. Practice ends with a quick meeting with the coaches and a discussion related to the next day’s volleyball game. Practice is out at around 8:50, and they get ready for the day.

Tuesday’s 7:30 practice begins as normal, as bits and parts of the girl’s uniforms are put on. A quick stunt practice and cheer review, and the girls are ready for the volleyball game tonight. After a full day of school, the girls get a quick dinner and are off to the volleyball game. The game starts at 6:30 and  can end as late as 9, depending on whether they start on time and the difficulty of the game. After cheering a full volleyball game, they proceed home and try to get as much homework done as possible.

“I use my time wisely,” junior Sarah Brucher said. “Whenever I have downtime, I do my homework before a game or during our first period cheer.”

Wednesday morning, the girls discuss the game and talk about things to improve on before Friday’s football game. They work on cheers that need work and jumping skills. They also focus on group stunting: stunts they can all do safely as a squad to look more uniformed at a game. Once practice concludes they continue on with their school day.

Thursday practices are the most important practices of the week, for it is their last full practice before the game. This practice is mostly focused on what they can do during the games, for example what stunts they are allowed to do or what band dance to do during what song. This is also the last time they can work all the little things out of routines. Once they hit a perfect routine, they stop, so they can end on a good note. Cheers and chants are reviewed again for the first year cheerleaders and the girls are dismissed. After school, the team gathers for sign painting. With the large amount of girls and limited supply of paint, some girls can be there as late as seven o’clock, even if they start as early as 4:10.  The hallway is quickly filled with the smell of paint and the floor is covered with paper. The girls get to work, but they don’t make this a chore.

“Painting signs is a lot more fun than it seems,” senior Meagan Thompson said. “Sometimes we break out into a random dance or start singing a song.”

The alarm clock wakes the girls at the crack of dawn Friday morning. The team has to be up earlier then usual, for the have to be in full uniform (top, skirt, bloomers, hair bow and shoes) and at an elementary school by seven am. Once they gather, they help greet the kids as they come into the school. After school starts, they pair up with a football player (or two) and read to their assigned classroom. Eventually, everyone leaves and goes back to school. The team then gathers in the gym for a quick practice at 8:55 or run through for the pep rally. After practice is dismissed, the girls are off to school.

Between 2:30 and 3, the team is dismissed early for the pep rally, and they rush to the gym to start stretching and warming up stunts.  The crowd piles in as the team gets set. Once the pep rally begins, they do the band dance, a cheer, and then their routine that the have been working on in weeks After the pep rally is over, they gather up their stuff and head home for a quick rest.

“I am never tired on Friday’s, because they are always the most fun days!” senior Emily Hagedorn said.  “I always look forward to all the things that are planned.”

The girls start to arrive at a team member’s house at five pm for dinner. They eat as a team, and then they are back up to the school by 6:15. From there they gather up megaphones, signs, footballs, and pom-poms for the game and walk out to the field. Before the 7:30 kickoff, they have to warm-up stunts and stretch, hang up signs, and do the run through.

“My favorite part about pre game warm up is the team dinner before hand,” junior Samantha Semmer said. “I think it’s great team bonding and it gets us pumped up for the game!”

The first and second quarters are dedicated to cheering directly to the crowd get a br. By halftime, instead of taking a break they immediately go to practice any flawed cheers and pyramids. Once they have everything perfected, they get a quick water break and prepare for the second half. The third quarter is dedicated to a meet-and-greet with the visiting teams cheerleaders.

Once the third quarter is done, they come back to the home side to cheer the football players on until the end of the game. Once the time on the clock runs out, the girls gather in front of the huddle of boys for the school song. The songs ends, and they gather up their stuff and head home, ready for their first full nights sleep all week.

“Of course it’s extremely exhausting, having practice at 7 am and cheering until 11 pm,” junior Lauren Sanders said. “But in the end, great friendships have been made, you have challenged yourself farther than you thought you could accomplish, and you have helped others achieve their best. And that’s what matters most.”