The Fair Grove School year has officially started. With that comes the start of sports, one of those being cheer. Fair Grove High School’s Cheer team has been preparing for the season since June.
The cheer team is formed by Fair Grove students that are in high school. When wanting to be on the cheer team, students must try out. Coach Samantha Padgett stated, “Normally we have a week of clinics and tryouts in March or April. A good tip for tryouts would be to work throughout the year in stretching and jumps, instead of waiting until tryout week.”
Cheerleader, Aubrie Voorhis (9), explained, “I went to all the junior cheer camps when I was a little girl and have been dreaming about becoming a cheerleader.” She also added, “I practiced and practiced all of middle school for this year, so I would say hard work and dedication definitely led me to where I am today.”
The Fair Grove Cheerleaders had a pre-season during the summer, starting in June. Coach Padgett stated, “We spend the summer working on anything from stunting to learning material that will help us at our games, or this year we spent time preparing for competition.” Voorhis said she thinks pre-season is a lot of fun and added, “especially spending the day with all of the cheer girls.”
The cheerleaders cheer on Fair Grove’s sports teams at home and away games. When going into games, the cheerleaders have to prepare. Coach Padgett said, “When preparing for every game we make sure to review information that is important to that specific game, such as timeout information, quarter cheer information, etc.”
Cheerleader captain, Hannah Bruner (12), said, “This year, the team is preparing by having the head coach from Nixa come in and choreograph our competition routine.” Bruner also added, “We are putting in a lot of work this season and really pushing ourselves as a team, so I am really excited for the community to see what we have accomplished already.”
Bruner said that before and during games, the cheerleaders and cheer parents run a temporary tattoo booth. She said, “We love doing the booth because the little kids not only love getting the temporary tattoos, but they love getting the opportunity to talk to the cheer team and take a picture with us!”
In years past, Fair Grove’s Cheerleaders only cheered on the sidelines of sports, such as football and boys basketball. Coach Padgett shared, “This year our cheerleaders will be going to competition for the first time in several years. This is very exciting as we have spent the past few years becoming stronger and really focusing on what it means to be a cheerleader.” She added, “I feel this team is ready to represent their school at a competition against many other schools.”
Bruner commented on her feelings about the competitions and said, “We have a little over a month until we compete at state and I am so excited for it.” Voorhis also added, “We are competing for the first time in several years. I look forward to seeing us through as far as we will go.”
Coach Padgett stated, the regional competition is October 8th at Lindenwood University, the team encourages the community to go support them as they represent Fair Grove.
