The MHS cheer team excites the crowd in football and basketball games, but they also participate in other events throughout the year Cheerleader Coach Jennifer Garcia said. The cheer team team organize fundraisers and try to reach out to the community through service, Garcia said.
The cheer team organized a cheer camp, called PeeWee Camp, in order to help elementary students learn basic cheer routines, Senior Marciana Abuan said.
“Well besides cheering like at football games and basketball games, we do fundraisers like recently we did the PeeWee Camp,” Abuan said. “I think we had 8 or 10 third through sixth grade girls come and cheer with us and so what we did was on Tuesdays and Thursdays for like a week, we taught them like a dance and then we showed them some cheers…we had a home game and they were able to perform with us and stuff.”
This PeeWee camp was the first one for the football season, Garcia said. The camp will reappear during the basketball season as well, Garcia added.
“It is definitely a fundraiser for us, but that’s also a way for us to reach out and extend ourselves to the elementary schools and get to meet those kids from there,” Garcia said.
Some of the cheerleaders participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s that was held on October 14th Abuan said. The cheerleaders did a performance for the people participating in the walk and cheered them on Abuan explained.
“They were there to cheer on all of the walkers. When the walkers are done, they come through another area and the girls hand out buttons and they cheer them on. Sometimes they hand out waters,” Garcia explained. “So, we helped them to try to be part of the community and put them in that setting and they were really grateful because we were the only school that ended up showing up because of the air quality.”
The 2017 Walk to End Alzheimer’s was the second year that the cheer team participated, Garcia said. Alzheimer’s is a close part of her life, Garcia explained.
“All my grandparents have Alzheimer’s so that sort of something near and dear to me…,” Garcia said. “I just want the girls to be out in the community.”
There is some discussion within the cheer coaches to make the cheer team competitive, Abuan said. In order to become competitive or an official sport recognized by the school, there can be some difficulties Abuan added.
“The cheerleaders currently at the school are not considered or a sport and so to be considered a sport you have to start competing,” Garcia said. “So cheer is actually considered a sport, but the school- to be a sport you have to go through a very intense process of applying and asking to be a part of it through the board. The board has to approve it. They have to see if they have money. They have to provide you with the facility. They have to provide you with uniforms and everything, but that’s why cheerleading is not a sport. So, all these girls pay for everything out of pocket.”
The idea of becoming a competitive team is supported Sophomore Genelle Gogue said. The team would be taken more seriously by MHS when it goes competitive Gogue explained.
“We’re athletes just like anyone else, we get hurt like anyone else, we go through all the things everyone else goes through,” Gogue said. “ I feel like even we do competitive cheer they would take us more seriously here cuz competitive is really hard and I feel like our team can definitely do that.”The main barrier to becoming a recognized sport, besides the school, are funds Garcia explains. It becomes expensive when the girls have to pay for the summer camp, uniforms, tumbling, and other cheer related expenses Garcia said.