The cheerleading team began preparations for the next year by holding tryouts for students in grades eight through 11. Each student interested in joining the team attended a three-day tryout session from Wednesday to Friday, held at the Upper School in Nichols.

“Our team has been attracting more interest every year, and it’s important to let people know that we are an established program now,” head coach Jill Bettencourt said. “I hope that it makes people more aware of the serious sport that it is. It’s easy for everyone to try, but to be successful does take a lot of work.”

During the tryouts, the prospective cheerleaders learned a dance, a performance cheer and a shorter game chant. They all performed those routines on the final day to a panel of judges, consisting of Ms. Bettencourt, the assistant coach and two of the captains of the team.

“Everybody is really nice, and they’re willing to help you learn. They don’t care about speed at first; they just want you to know the cheers and the dances and the choreo,” Emma Boyce (8), a student who attended the tryouts, said. “The dance we learned is really fast with the music, but at first we just learned the movements. Even though some of the other cheerleaders already knew it, they wanted to help the new girls.”

This year’s tryout process is something that is new to the Harker cheerleading program. One of the main goals of the tryouts was to draw in new members.

“I’m excited because hopefully, getting the word out there about cheer will help us grow and have a larger team,” captain Olivia Long (11) said. “I’m really eager for the new girls because when I first came, the seniors were great mentors for me, and hopefully I can provide the same knowledge for these girls.”

The tryout results were announced the night of the final tryout day, and emails were sent to the cheerleaders who made the team for next year.