What’s it like being a senior captain of the cheerleading team? Being a senior captain for the Carroll County cheerleaders is a big deal to me. Unlike most squads the coach is not the only person who gets to pick who gets to be the captains. We all get a slip of paper and write down who we think really deserves it. Being a senior captain is just that much more pressure, the thought of knowing people are looking up to you and you don’t want to mess up because you are supposed to be “perfect.” By being a captain you have to lead the cheers and you have to be a good influence and keep everyone hyped up if we are losing or winning. I am senior captain along with two other captains, Jenna Ring and Jenah Dalton. I can honestly say that i couldn’t do it all by myself and I am glad I have got the chance to be a captain with both of them!
Whenever Carroll County is getting hammered, do you guys ever get the urge to say, ‘Heck with this,’ and start chanting, “We Stink?” I do not! Some girls may want to say this. But I believe that if we are losing we can come right back and win. If we are losing it just makes me want to cheer harder and I want to get the crowd involved and be hype. Once we start to lose the crowd just sits there. The crowd needs to stand up and cheer for the players. I think that with the crowd doing that it makes the players play better.
What is the one cheer you would like to do that Coach Lyons won’t allow? Sometimes the opponents make fun of our cheerleaders or mock us and I would really like to do the cheer that goes “That’s alright thats okay, your gonna pump our gas someday.” Coach will NOT allow that cheer!
Why don’t high schools have more male cheerleaders? Of the male faculty at Carroll County High School, who would make the best cheerleader? I do not know why high schools don’t have more male cheerleaders. I mean if you think about it the boys would be smart to be a cheerleader. They would get to be with 16 high-spirited girls. I think that Coach Holderfield and Coach Hawks would make the best cheerleaders. They are both very athletic and could hold up a massive pyramid of girl.
What would trash talk between cheerleaders sound like? Trash talking between cheerleaders wouldn’t exactly be talking to each other it would be more of a show of who can be the loudest and do the best stunts.
What is the most difficult part about cheerleading? The most difficult part of cheerleading is when we are stunting and we know that we are all capable of the stunt and it just won’t hit. It is the worst feeling and it gets all of us aggravated when we know we can do something but it just isn’t working.
What past Carroll County cheerleader do you look up to the most and try to emulate when you are cheering? A past Carroll County cheerleader that I look up to the most is Brooke Willis. When I was on 8th grade and went to the cheerleading clinics I remember her always being so pretty and having awesome jumps. The next year I was on the JV cheerleading squad and it was her senior year on the Varsity squad. when we would have summer practices I would always try and be just like her. Competition season came and I was asked to be on the Competing squad, Brooke was on it also. She was always and still is someone thatI try to cheer like.
What is your favorite part about cheerleading? My favorite part about cheerleading is when the crowd gets pumped and is going crazy for the team. I love seeing the fans getting involved. I also like when the student section dresses up for the games.
How much different is competitive cheerleading than just cheering at a game? Competitive cheerleading is very different than cheering at a game. We work for months just for three minutes on a mat. When we cheer at a game we are not competing against different squads for trophies. At games we cheer, dance, and stunt. But when we are on the competition mat all 20 of us are all matching with our hair pieces in, navy long-sleeve body suits, and Navy uniforms on, and confidence in our squad. While we compete we do the most difficult stunts and so tight in our motions it hurts.
What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen happen while cheerleading? The funniest thing I saw during my cheerleading career would have to be at one football game. There was a lady that was cheering on the cheerleaders and wasn’t even watching the game just the cheerleaders. She would yell, “How about our cheerleaders!” She would stand up and dance and clap. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. After about half time I think she was asked to leave though.
Teenage girls and drama just seem like they would go together like peanut butter and jelly. How much drama is there in high school cheerleading? I don’t think that there is much drama on the squad. Some of us don’t get along all of the time but for the most part we are all just like a big family. Families fight some times and that is how cheerleading is. Coach Lyons does not put up with drama well so we all try and stay out of it.
Tell us about the time you thought the Easter Bunny wouldn’t come to see you at Smith Mountain Lake? While growing up my family always spent the weekends up on Smith Mountain Lake on a houseboat. We happened to spend the Easter weekend up there when I was 5 and I was afraid that the Easter Bunny wouldn’t find where I was to hide his Easter Eggs. So I made my mom raise the flag on the boat as a signal to the Easter bBunny where I was that Easter. It worked!
Tell us about your most exciting canoe ride? It was the summer after my fifth grade year and my cousin was spending the summer with my family. We were always out on the river fishing or canoeing on the weekends. This particular night we decided we would take a new route on Big Reed Island. My dad, brother, cousin, and I set out at 5 o’clock and made plans to meet mom an hour down the river where she would be waiting with the Jeep. Well mom was there at 6 o’clock but we found a good fishing hole and were late. It got dark quick and we couldn’t see where we were going. No one had cell reception down in the valley to get in touch with mom. To make a long story short mom found us 10 hours later floating down the river.
How about the time the neighbors’ Rottweiler wouldn’t let you out of the job john? We were building our house and did not have plumbing in it yet. One evening after school we went to check on the progress. We had rented a port-o-john and someone needed to use it. It was summer time and 80 degrees outside but inside the port-o-john it was 90. Mom was holding the door open while I was using it because it was so hot and smelly. Along came a Rottweiler and mom pushed my brother, her, and I in. I don’t know how long we had to stay in there but it seemed like hours until we didn’t hear the dog smelling around and we peeked out to see if the coast was clear.
What do you hope to accomplish with the rest of your senior year in cheerleading? I hope to accomplish a sense of school spirit at Carroll County. We have some great athletes that work very hard for their team and I want the school to show our support for them. The fans at Carroll County are very supportive and the cheerleaders hope to encourage the student section to show up at all of the sporting events.
How annoyed do you get when people say cheerleading is not a sport? Anyone who has ever been a cheerleader knows that is it more than just standing on the sidelines and shaking our pom poms. We are a group of girls who practice very hard and try to be the best that we can be. We train and compete like every other sport. You can ask a cheerleader to look at her arms and you will see the bruises from the hard work we put into the sport.
So, exactly who was it that helped you “talk” to boys during the cheerleading team’s trips to the Capital One Bowl your sophomore and senior years? I would have to say that my wing-woman is my coach, Coach Lyons. No matter if I want her to talk to a boy for me or not. If she hears me say a boy is cute or she thinks that I may think he is semi-attractive she will go to extremes to talk to him for me. From Disney World to just going to Olive Garden any trip cheerleaders go on there has never been one go by that she hasn’t tried or succeeded on getting a boys’ number for me.
We hear there is a muscle you are especially proud of due to being a back-spot/base in stunts? There is a muscle that only back spots get that my friend Baylee Dalton informed me that I had this past football season. It is called a Trapezius muscle. It is on the top of your shoulders. If you look at back spot you can always tell if they are doing their job if they have that muscle. I am proud of that muscle because no one can tell me I’m not doing my job as a back-spot.
Complete a sentence using the following words –Adam Joyce, pom poms, Coach Lyons: I would love to see Coach Lyons hold up Adam Joyce while he is waving his pom poms around. (Editor’s Note: So would we Danni. Let’s make this happen!)
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