Cheer Tryouts

Jordan Snyder

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Most people think cheerleading is easy and anyone can come tryout to make the team. However, that's not the case. So much more goes into cheer than someone on the outside would see. Tryouts can be very stressful and emotional. Potential cheerleaders only have three days to learn and perfect all the tryout material. A cheerleading tryout consists of a runout, jumps, a cheer, chant, and a dance; it can be very difficult to learn all the material in just a few hours. The day of tryouts is a whole new level of stress, for everyone including returners, has the potential of not making the team. One by one we go in and do our runout, jumps, and cheer for about three to four judges. This can be very stressful for someone which makes it easy to forget what you are doing or let your nerves take over. Once the individual part is over, the judges will separate us into groups and we must go out with the assigned group for the chant and dance. This is one of the most intense parts because one wrong motion or timing issue can cost you making the team. The main things to be focused on are your timing, your motions, smiling, and being the loudest one in your group. Once tryouts are over, one would think the stress would be over but it's not. When the list is put out for who made the team, the ones who make it are very excited and eager to start practicing and grow closer to the team. However, the ones who don't make the team will likely have a hard time dealing with it, as they have put so much into it. It can be hard for friends, some get separated by this, or for new people to bond with the returners. After the new team is established it starts a whole new chapter of cheerleading.