What is cheer all about? They have many plans and goals for the season. 

“Cheerleading is all about bringing energy and excitement to sports,” varsity cheer coach Erica Wagner said. 

Cheer is not all about the audience’s entertainment, cheer is an opportunity for cheerleaders to increase their overall health, sportsmanship, teamwork, leadership and social skills according to varsity.com in their article “Benefits of Cheer.” 

The roster this year contains 21 Varsity, 13 JV and 12 Freshmen cheerleaders. Varsity cheer has gotten first place at regionals at Lindenwood University and JV got 2nd place. 

“We’ve had some really tough setbacks with injuries already this year, but we’re coming back and ready to finish out on our competition season chart strong,” Wagner said

Cheer has three competitions left this year: UCA at Indiana in November, Southeast Missouri State in December and Nationals in February.

“It’s been really fun. This year has been a huge change from last year. I feel like the team is a lot closer and we had a lot more fun this year,” juniorBrooke Messmer said. 

Some cheerleaders said they felt they were better as a team this year, with the possibility to get even better in the future. 

“I’m excited. I think our team has a lot of potential and I’m just excited to see how well we work together and the memories we make,”  junior Gracyn Horst said.

Several cheerleaders  said they also made new friends this year.

“I think I’m pretty confident, and I have made a lot of friends during cheer,” freshman Scarlett Kaden said.

During the winter sports season, cheer will cheer for basketball.