“We got Spirit, Yes we do! We got spirit how ‘bout you!” Cheerleaders are the ones that get a crowd pumped, and help make football and basketball games stay upbeat and fun. At Homer High School, cheerleaders may seem like a permanent fixture at football and basketball games when times are tense and during half-time shows. But will they continue to be a part of Homer High history, or will they fade out of the picture?
Homer High cheerleaders do a lot more than you may think. First of all cheerleaders put in hours of practice, so they can learn cheers that will help lift up a crowd. But what you may not know is how much goes on behind-the-scenes so that this program can keep running smoothly.
“The high school provides the cheerleaders around $600 for both the football and basketball seasons, causing the cheerleaders to do more than necessary to get money to cheer. The cheerleaders themselves have to do many fundraisers like; bakes sales, scentsy orders, stoplight dances, but they also have to pay alot of the costs on their own. Ex. Cheerleading uniforms themselves cost $150 and you don’t get to keep them,” Fallin Leigh, senior cheeerleader. Why do cheerleaders have less funding than other sports like football?
Rama Flymn, currently coaching the cheerleaders this football season, will not be able to coach them through the basketball season. Rama will be coaching next year’s cheerleading football season, because she wants all the current cheerleaders to have a coach. She also wants to give them the opportunity to get better, because each one of them have the potential to be excellent cheerleaders.
With football season coming to an end and basketball season right around the corner, the cheerleaders continue to work hard to raise money so that they can go to state with the football team. In order for this to happen they put on a dance this past weekend, raising enough money to get them to state along with the money they earned from a bake sale.
So now the question is, Will the cheerleaders continue on to be a part of Homer High’s history and future, or will they fade out of the picture due to funding issues?
Cheerleading!
By: Kenley Kingrey