At the beginning of the school year, the fate of the cheer team was uncertain. Conditioning and practice for the cheer squad normally begins in the summer, and they continue to practice throughout the year. However, going into the 2021/22 season, organisers of the squad were unsure if there would be Barstow cheer at all.
“We were worried that we wouldn’t have a cheer team at all, but we pulled together last minute, and now we have 11 people on the team, which I’m very impressed with,” said head captain Rosemary Warren ‘22.
In late November, Coach Don Stelting approached Warren ‘22 and Sophie Yagan ‘22 to ask if they wanted to pursue a cheer team. The first obstacle was finding a coach. After the previous cheer coach retired, the girls were unsure if they would be able to find one. Luckily, Mrs. Marcia Fisher, an events coordinator at Barstow, volunteered for the position and has been an extremely successful coach for the team.
“She’s [Coach Fisher] really supportive, and she’s really nice about giving us tips rather than being like ‘oh you did this bad,’” said Mylie Cadwalater ‘25.
Along with a new coach, the squad has many new members. Of the 11 members of the cheer squad, 9 are new to cheer at Barstow and have had to learn many new skills, over 17 cheers, and how to perform dangerous stunts.
Yagan ‘22 is one of the new members of the team who has had to rapidly learn all of the choreography. “I feel like I’ve learned a lot of new stuff in a short amount of time,” she said. “I think everybody’s definitely improving each week.”
Some of the most difficult and dangerous parts of cheer are performing the stunts. Cheerleading is one of the most dangerous sports, and every year, over 30,000 cheerleaders go to the hospital for cheer-related injuries. At Barstow, stunts were approved for the 2021/22 season, and due to the size of the team, the squad plans on having two stunt groups during the performances, which all the girls are very eager for.
The three main positions in a stunt group are the bases, backspots, and flyers. The flyers are the cheerleaders who are lifted and thrown throughout a routine while the bases lift and support them. The backspot helps the flyer maintain their balance and helps to catch the flyer as they fall.
Isa Welty ‘25, one of the flyers on the team, is thrown into the air during stunts and has to perform tricks as she falls back into the arms of her teammates. “It’s pretty scary because when you’re being thrown up, you don’t get to look behind you when you fall and you have to really trust your backspot,” Welty ‘25 said.
Mylie Cadwalader ‘25 is a backspot on the team. Before joining the cheer squad, Cadwalater ‘25 was a gymnast for 10 years. This has benefitted her technique and strength, making backspot an ideal position for her. “That’s [backspot] my main position because of my strength, and I’m also taller than a lot of the girls on the team,” she said.
The trust and confidence involved with cheer requires a bond between the girls and a positive environment when they practice. Warren ‘22 said that she tries to break the ice during practices and has seen the team grow much closer after only a few weeks of practice.
“Throwing people in the air can get stressful,” Warren ‘22 said. “And you just want to think about not dropping someone, so it really helps to make jokes and get to know each other. Hopefully with games starting we’re gonna get even closer as a team.”
As head captain, Warren ‘22 has worked hard to unite the girls and create better team chemistry. When she was a freshman, one of her main motivations to join cheer was because of the people involved and the prospect of making new friends. Many of the freshmen this year joined for the same reasons.
“There’s a great community,” said Welty ‘25. “I’ve met a lot of new people and I definitely think that everyone’s been really great about helping the freshmen learn everything.”
Of the 11 girls on the team this year, 5 are freshmen, and Warren’s efforts to foster a tight-knit team and include the new members have been successful. Warren ‘22 starts practices with a question of the day, and tries to include everyone in the conversation. She also personalised each girls’ uniform by writing their names on the collar.
“She’s [Warren] great, she’s really funny, and we’re able to mess around and have fun while also still learning stuff,” said Cadwalader ‘25. “She’s also very supportive of us, and wants the best for us which is really nice.”
The practices have been successful for the team, and they hope to carry their success to the court during performances. The cheer team normally attends all the basketball games and cheers at two pep assemblies throughout the year. However, due to COVID-19 and the late start to the season, they will only be performing at home games and one pep assembly in the spring.
“I’m very excited,” Lauren Rothaas ‘25 said about the upcoming games. “But I’m a little nervous about the stunting so far, just to make sure that no one gets injured.”
The pressure of performing in front of a crowd can cause nerves as well, especially for a sport as dangerous and as difficult as cheer. Warren ‘22 said that one of the hardest parts of being a cheerleader is performing without feeling self conscious in front of the crows. This feeling of stage fright was echoed by many of the other girls.
“When you’re cheering you’re always thinking that everyone is seeing all the little mistakes, but in reality, no one is seeing it but you and your teammates,” said Warren ‘22.
Alongside the Barstow dance team, the cheer team has faced a large set of challenges, stemming from both inside and outside the community. Both teams are largely female dominated, and many have talked about the amount of ridicule that the team members face after pep rallies and games.
“We get made fun of quite a bit, sometimes from our own basketball teams that we cheer for,” said Warren ‘22. “They just think it’s very silly and not actually a sport, but when you’re up there and you’re throwing people and you’re doing it over and over and over again it can be very exhausting. It can be a pretty demanding sport if you’re actually going all out, but people just don’t recognize that.”
Despite the nerves before their performances, the girls are still very excited to showcase their hard work and display the skills they have developed over the last few months. The squad’s first performance will be at a home basketball game on January 20.
