Twelve figures assemble at the center of Davis Field, pink bows sparkling. Shimmering golden pom-poms gleam in the fluorescent lighting. The crowd is silent, hushed in anticipation.

Suddenly, the first few notes of a pop mashup blare from the loudspeakers, and the homecoming halftime routine begins. The cheerleaders deliver a high-energy performance, dazzling onlookers with their coordination, sharp movements and new-and-improved stunts.

So far, the team has cheered at eight varsity football games, including Homecoming.

Membership in the cheer team dropped from 16 individuals to 12 this year, 10 of which were on the team last year. Despite this alteration in team dynamic, the group remains close through frequent bonding activities such as collective poster-making and team sleepovers.

“They were really welcoming the first time I joined, and it was really exciting to be part of a team,” cheerleader Adhya Hoskote (9) said. “It was really nice because we have a little [cheer] family, and it was really sweet how they accepted me into the group.”

In comparison to last year, cheer coach Jill Bettencourt has seen improvement in the team’s technique.

“The technique [of the routines] is a lot more difficult, so some of the skills that they’re doing [are] a lot more difficult than last year,” Bettencourt said. “We have more difficult stunts and tumbling, [and] the team as a whole is just more advanced than last year.”

One of the factors contributing to the cheer team’s progress is the new assistant coach, Marissa “Mona” Young. Young has several years of experience, from being a cheerleader throughout all of high school and junior college to receiving a scholarship to cheer in college.

“Because I used to cheer, it’s nice to coach the younger generation so they get the passion I had when I used to do it,” Young said. “It helped with my self-confidence. With a lot of the girls, I’m seeing them get that extra boost, that extra morale.”

Young leads conditioning exercises during practices, which cheerleaders participate in to improve their strength, endurance and balance.

“[Young’s] really big on conditioning; we didn’t really do much conditioning last year, [but] this year, we’re conditioning every practice, so we can get stronger,” cheer team spirit coordinator Claire Newman (10) said.

Along with conditioning during practices to improve core strength, cheerleaders learn halftime routines, practice stunts and develop their abilities. Many members of the team attend private tumbling lessons, personal classes geared towards improving flexibility and technique.

“Tumbling private [lessons] have helped me a lot in terms of my progress because I can almost do a roundoff back handspring,” a flyer, one of the people lifted into the air during a stunt, Viveka Saraiya (10) said. “In terms of our team, the stunts we’re doing are a lot more complex. For homecoming last year, our most complex stunts were a show-and-go and an extension lib. This year we [had] a lot of basket tosses, which [required] a lot more concentration and coordination by the bases.”

Another aspect of the cheer team this year that contributes to their success in performances is their early start to learning new routines, especially the homecoming routine, and their willingness to practice their technique.

“We do a lot of cheer bonding, so we’re pretty close,” co-captain Raveena Panja (11) said. “Since we know that we’re always supporting each other, if we mess up on something, it’s ok because we tried our best, and we did our best to make everything perfect. And at the end, it doesn’t matter because we’re having fun.”

The cheer team will perform at the remaining varsity football games for the rest of the season and will also be cheering on varsity boys basketball during the winter sports season.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Nicole Chen

The cheer team performs a routine at a football game. The cheerleaders performed at football games in the fall and will perform at basketball games in the winter.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on November 17, 2016.