The Fair Grove Middle School football season has taken off and supporting them on the sidelines is the middle school cheer team.
Middle school teachers, Kayla Holt and Lindsay Dunning, are the coaches for the cheer team. Dunning stated that the cheerleaders like performing at the middle school pep assembly, which happened during their advisory period on September 11th. Dunning continued, “We also always look forward to performing our halftime routines.”
Fair Grove’s Middle School Cheer program does not start until 7th grade. This means around half of the Cheerleaders have not been on the team before and have to learn the chants and stunts they will be performing. Dunning has been the coach for two years now, and knows the steps to getting the team prepared for their year. They first practice their sideline chants so they have them memorized before the first football game. Dunning stated, “Once those are down we will begin working more on dances and stunts.”
Dunning is grateful for the support her eighth graders give her with teaching and helping the team. The eighth graders on the team this year are Louella Gore, Gracie Thompson, Karma Crews, Reygan Hallam, and Gemma Hirayama.
Tompson is one of the flyers on the cheer team, meaning she is lifted and sometimes thrown into the air. She stated her favorite part of cheerleading is just being up in the air stunting and cheering. Tompson stated, “…this is my first year at this school, so I thought this would give me something to be a part of as a team.” She was originally a dancer and stated that it was a natural step in the same sort of direction, while making new friends as a part of a team.
Crews performed as a cheerleader during her seventh grade year as well, lending her expertise to the newcomers this year. Crews elaborated that she has done competitive cheer for 6 years, which gives her the advantage of providing much needed advice to her teammates when they need support and help. Crews is looking forward to out-cheering other schools during cheerleading competitions later on in the year.
The cheer squad practices after school in the middle school commons, and has 15 cheerleaders this year. You can see those cheerleaders perform and cheer on their classmates at home middle school football games and home middle school boys basketball games.
The next home middle school football game takes place on October 9th.
