School spirit leaders

Squad roots for various sports, gains 'sisters' each season

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The Boulder City High School cheerleaders certainly aren't the stereotypical cheerleading squad. They are hard working, dedicated young ladies who enjoy their sport and love to fire up the crowd at all the football and basketball games.

"This is my first year of being the cheerleading coach and I love it," said coach Caroline Nay. "The girls are great kids, and I enjoy working with them. We have received many compliments on this year's team, and we appreciate all the fan support and enthusiasm."

The cheerleaders need to be able to work together and function as a true team despite any personality differences.

"Our main job is to cheer on the teams and perform at the assemblies," said senior Rachel Peterson. "We try to smile a lot and have fun as we promote school spirit. We like to push the 'cheese' factor."

The cheerleaders feel they are misunderstood by many of the students at the school, who may not consider cheerleading a sport. They are very dedicated and committed to their sport and have a number of extra responsibilities and functions to perform.

"My favorite part about cheerleading is having 12 best friends or close sisters." said senior Serretta Fast. "You get really close because you're with the same girls all year long."

Cheerleading can be a very dangerous sport. The ladies have had broken and bloody noses, concussions, broken arms, teeth knocked out, injured knees and backs and plenty of bruises over the years.

"The hardest part about cheerleading is the amount of time involved," said senior Erica Ashe. "Sometimes we have our dramas, but we still love each other."

The team practices five days a week for two hours a day. The Eagles practice year round, not just during the school year, and attend a number of competitions and camps in the summer.

The next season starts in April, and that's when tryouts are held.

"People tend to think we don't do anything, and that cheerleading's easy," said senior Sheena Reese. "It's like hardcore aerobics.

"My highlight this year is going to the first-ever state competition in Carson City in March. We're gonna kick butt."

One of the extra functions for the cheerleaders is community service. They help develop middle and elementary school students as future cheerleaders at Junior Cheer Camps, held twice a year. After camp, all cheerleaders perform at one home varsity basketball and football game each season.

"My favorite cheerleading memory was during football season this year," said senior Laurie Wolff. "We would dance and have fun as the band played, and the fans would really get into it."

The Eagle cheerleaders also are guardian angels to the football players. The cheerleaders leave special gifts for each player before home games, and even decorate their lockers and bedrooms.

"I would encourage every girl to try cheerleading," said senior Sam Bereny. "Cheerleading is so hard, and it's more than just the athletics of it. We get involved in our sport, and each sport we cheer for. When they lose, we lose.

"Cheerleading builds so much character, with all the practices and the time commitment. We learn so much responsibility, and people tend to not give us the credit we deserve."

Cheerleading is a very expensive sport, and the team only receives so much funding from the school. The kids pay for uniforms, pompoms, warm-ups and cheer camp, and the total is around $600 per year.

"Cheerleading at Boulder City High School is awesome," Fast said. "We have one of the best programs in the Class 3A division. The school staff and administration supports us very well, and we work well with the student council. The small school atmosphere is great."

"I like to fly," Reese said. "I love the games, especially football. The crowds are so much fun."

The members of the 2005-2006 varsity Eagles cheerleading team are seniors Reese, Fast, Wolff, Bereny, Ashe, Stephanie Lyon, Brittany Nichol and Peterson and juniors Aimee Cerda, Vivian Sanders and Hailey Broadbent.

The girls are excited about participating in the first-ever Silver State Spirit Championships in Carson City, set for Saturday. They will be competing against the other Class 3A schools and feel they have the opportunity to place very high.

The Eagles cheerleaders have been working very hard on their routines for the championships, and have added Stephanie Hillard as a competition coach to prepare the girls for the event.

Next year's Silver State Spirit Championships will be held in Las Vegas.

Jim Konst is a local freelance writer. Send story ideas and comments to him at jkonst54@aol.com.