Can you survive a varsity cheer practice?

We weren’t really sure what to expect when we were  pressured by Falcon staff members to attend a varsity cheerleading practice. Our initial feelings were a cross between relief, as we were getting a break from academic stress of junior year, and apprehension, as we were bound to embarrass ourselves.

Thankfully, it turned out better than we expected.

As we arrived at practice on Aug. 27 in the Dance Room, a small mirrored space right next to the Small Gym, we nervously waited outside the door until senior cheerleader and fellow staff member Summer Smith walked out to greet us. As we joined in on the cheerleaders’ stretching, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t intimidated to be the only boys among the nine girls there that day.

After warming up, we attempted to gracefully perform various acrobatics such as toe touches, pike jumps and herkie (split) jumps.

The key word here is “attempted.” Cheerleaders Savanah Nguyen and Dallas Morganstern helped us improve our form by showing us exactly what body position we were supposed to be in. To them, we were just another pair of recruits: Move your hand higher, point your toes, arms straight. They showed no mercy.

After acrobatics, we moved onto practicing cheers. The cheers seemed a lot easier than jumps, so we were feeling pretty confident at the start.

In reality, the cheers were the most challenging part of the practice. Although they appeared fairly straightforward, they were much easier said than done. Literally.

It wasn’t difficult for us to memorize the various chants such as “defense, do it, you gotta get get get to it,” but we had to perform each of the various movements to meet rigid standards. When we combined the words and movements, we became offbeat for most of the movements and failed to remember the correct order of the words.

As practice progressed, we slowly improved in our attempts to perform the cheers, partially since there were three other new members at practice that day. When we reviewed all the cheers at the end of the day, we have to say — we could have passed off as actual cheerleaders.  

In the last 30 minutes of practice, just when we thought we were off the hook, we moved onto stunting.

Stunting was just as, if not more, difficult than we had imagined. We needed to synchronize our movements in order to lift senior flyer Cayla Zelanis into the air so she wouldn’t lose her balance. Because we are different heights, we struggled to align our hands to make a stable platform.

After somewhat successfully boosting Zelanis into the air, we then attempted our next challenge: trying to perform a basket by launching junior flyer Savanah Nguyen into the air. Once Nguyen was air bound, time seemed to slow down as we positioned ourselves to catch her, interlocking our arms for extra support.

We are proud to say that Nguyen landed softly on her toes without breaking anything. To end practice, we had a “break,” where we put our hands together and shouted an enthusiastic cheer. The cheerleaders decided to honor us by shouting “Jason and Neehar!” for the break, a defining moment in our high school careers.

By the end of the two-hour practice, we thought we had learned a lot about the art of cheerleading. However, this feeling soon disappeared when Smith told us we had learned fewer than a fourth of the cheers, and the ones we had learned were far from perfect. We hadn't even scratched the surface of all we would need to know to become actual cheerleaders.

Cheerleading may not seem to be the most physical sport from the outside, but in reality, it is quite straining on the body and mind. Believe us: If you want to gain respect for cheerleading, go and join them for a practice.