On April 13, cheer tryout week began. It was originally scheduled to begin on March 16. With the cancellation of face to face school, cheer tryouts could not take place inside of the building. Instead, the coaches had to make tryouts possible. In the end, it was decided that it would be done with video entries.
“The tryout process was similar to how my online classes are,” sophomore Oliva Runge said. “We joined a google classroom and each day were sent out a new video to learn that day’s material. This started on Monday and all week we reviewed the material. On Friday we made a video with all of the material from the week which included a band dance, cheer, chant, and the fight song. Just like teachers grade our work, the judges judged our video and gave us a score.”
Everything that was expected for the tryouts did not change. Each person trying out had to learn a band dance, cheer, chant and dance the fight song. Seniors were asked to make videos that were sent out on a google classroom so the material could be learned. The judges were looking for specifics when scoring. This ranged from knowledge of the material to attitude when going through the motions. The possible team members had no way of asking questions to make sure everything they were doing was correct.
“This year was very different from last year because there was no chance for us to get feedback on our performance for the week,” freshman Cora Rogers said. “In years past, the seniors would teach us the routines and then correct us if we were wrong. It was very hard, especially for new girls to improve over the week without the feedback of others.”
A total of 34 girls got a spot on a team. There were 20 on the varsity team and 14 on the junior varsity team.