Recapping a Successful Season

My Name is Sam Harris, I am a freshmen at JSU and am on the Cheer team there. As our JSU season was coming to a close Coach Dave approached me with an opportunity to be on a competition all stars team. At first I felt like I was not qualified to take on such a task, because JSU did not have a competition team this year, and I had only cheered “sideline”. This year has been my very first year cheering, I played Baseball growing up, as well as Varsity Football in High School. But Coach was able to persuade me very easily, and before I knew it tryouts for the soon-to-be “Chief Wahoos” were here. We displayed our skills for the coaches and selections were made to form the inaugural season of the level 4.2 Senior Coed Chief Wahoos. Later that night I received a call from Coach Dave congratulating me on making the team. And so began the journey of the best three months of my life.

            After practicing basic cheer fundamentals for about a month, we had our choreography weekend. I had gone back home to Marietta, Georgia for Christmas break. I received a call from coach while on my way back, he called me in a panic asking “WHERE ARE YOU AT?” I told him I was en route to ACE and was currently in Piedmont. He sternly told me to hurry up, it turns out our team snap app had changed the time of the practice back to eastern (Georgia) time and I was an hour late to choreography... not a good start to the season for me.

            When choreography weekend was complete I was feeling doubtful at best. There were so many things that had to be moved around and rearranged. I was incredibly thankful for “Happy's” patience with our young and unrefined team. I remember leaving after a long practice on Sunday and thinking to myself  “Is this gonna be worth it? Is this going to amount to anything?” Before we all knew it, it was time for our show off at ACE. As expected, tensions were high and no one knew what to expect for our very first legitimate run through. As we took the floor you could see the anxiety and feel everyone's heart pounding out loud. The music started and we were underway. We NAILED our run throughs, and were prepared for our first competition is Sevierville, TN.

            We did not do as well as we had hoped we would in our first competition, finishing second behind an all girl team, who frankly was nothing special. This inspired my team as well as myself to never let that happen again. When we came back for our first practice back, you could see a determination and a fire burning in every athlete on that team. You could tell that every single one of us was hungry, hungry for a victory and hungry for revenge. When we competed in Destin, that's exactly what we got. Warming up was one of the most nerve wrecking feelings I've ever had. It felt like we were warming up in a cheap little “Fisher Price” plastic tent, that's basically what it was. To be honest both our warm ups in Destin were atrocious. Regardless, we took the floor and hit our first routine very well, being a perfectionist, that was not good enough for me. The second day of competition was here and we were determined to go out there and hit 100% perfect. Once again, warm ups were a nightmare. But in normal fashion my family and I went out and as Coach Dave says “Nailed THE HECK outta that routine”. We've never hit that clean and the audience was in an uproar because of our performance. Seeing all the other ACE teams from across the country supporting us was a feeling like no other. I remember siting at awards anxiously waiting for our level's awards to be announced. When the announcer proclaimed “And... in first place.... From Rainbow City, Alabama. ACE CHEER COMPANY CHIEF WAHOOS” a rush of adrenaline shot through our entire team, and every sacrifice we had made was well worth it. Every bump and bruise, bloody nose, and dislocated shoulder up to that point didn't matter, we had won. We fought and battled every odd against our favor, beating teams that had been together for a year.

            As our season comes to a close, I realize that being on this team was the best experience of my life. Relationships I had prior to this team are stronger, and I have formed life long friends with people I would have never met otherwise. I am so thankful for everyone I competed with and the coaches that pushed me to be a better athlete. Being on this team has made me grow as an athlete, cheerleader, but more importantly as a person. Being on a team this big really shows you how you have to work together or nothing will get done. You have to rely on your brothers and sisters to pull their share of the load to get the goal accomplished. And as much as I hate to say it, our season has to come to a close. Although, we sometimes had our disagreements and differences, we will ALWAYS have Chief Wahoos. I want to thank my teammates and coaches for always encouraging me and sticking with me through this entire season. I want to give a special thanks to J.R. For all he has done for me personally and this entire team. This year would not have been possible without him, and I am truly grateful. I told the team before our last routine in Nashville, that I had never been this close to any team I had ever been on before. No Football, Baseball, or Basketball team I've been on can hold a candle to my Chief Wahoos. We will forever be a family and have each others back. I love you all and would not have changed a single thing about this season. CHIEF WAHOOS??! YOU KNOW! Go Tribe

-Sam Harris

A Wonderful Surprise

I never really planned on being a male cheerleader; it was just something that happened. I needed a way to be able to afford to pay for college and at the time I believed that JROTC would make that possible. There was a physical fitness team that was part of their extracurricular program called The Raider Team. This team was involved in competitions that were made up of running through obstacle courses and physical fitness tests. I thought it would be something that was very demanding physically, but also a lot of fun.

My freshman year I tried out for the Raider Team, but I did not make it. I was determined to make it my sophomore year so I began working out at a gym that just happened to be next door to a cheerleading gym.  I worked out every day and one day Madonna Holladay, who ran the cheerleading gym and was the mother of the high school cheerleading coach, came over and asked if I was interested in cheerleading. Before that day I had never even thought about cheerleading as something that I would be interested in doing.

Madonna showed me how cheerleading could help to pay for college without the requirement of serving five years in the military that ROTC would require. She also invited me to watch a few of the teams do their routine and I saw how competitive cheerleading was. It was not just standing on the sideline cheering on a football or basketball team. Competitive cheerleading was intense and required a lot out of the team members and teamwork.

My sophomore year I tried out of cheerleading and made the junior varsity squad. I learned so much in that year of cheerleading. I learned that if you get frustrated you have to find a way to calm down because when you get too worked up nothing will work. I also learned that at times it is best to just shut your mouth and not argue because women will always be right.

I made the varsity squad as an alternate my junior year. That was when I learned more about true coed stunting and how demanding it was. I was hooked after that. Anytime I could be in the gym working on improving my stunting abilities, I was. It was so exciting the things that were possible by throwing a girl in the air. My team went on to win nationals that year, and I eagerly awaited my senior year.

During my senior year I began to cheer on an ALL-STAR team as well as my high school varsity team. It was one more way to improve my abilities. ALL-STAR cheerleading was completely different from school cheerleading. We would only practice a few nights a week for ALL-STAR, and the team was made up from people from other schools. We would work together so that we could make the team as successful as possible. ALL-STARS and school cheerleading both give a sense of family and everyone motivates each other to do their best.

After high school, cheerleading helped me pay for college because of the scholarships I received. I began cheerleading at Snead State two years ago, and next year I hope to be able to cheer at Jacksonville State University. While most girls grow up with hopes of being a great cheerleader many guys are never introduced to the sport until high school age or at the beginning of college. When guys finally learn all the excitement that comes with being a male cheerleader, endless doors begin to open.

Cheerleading has given me the opportunity to work with athletes that need help improving their stunting or tumbling abilities. I began coaching and teaching tumbling while in high school and have worked at ACE of Gadsden for about a year now. Cheerleading might be demanding and time consuming, but the hard work is more than worth it when you can show all the banners, medals, trophies, and rings that your team won. As more guys become interested in cheerleading, more possibilities open. Having male cheerleaders on a team can make it possible to pull off those more elite stunts. I hope that cheerleading will continue to become a more socially accepted activity for young men, and that way guys will not have such a huge learning gap when they do get into the sport.

-Karl Kiesler
@karl_kiesler