Cheerleading program back to form

"I have seen this cheer program grow so much in the past three years! It's great!" said Christine Richmond co-captain of the cheerleading team. The cheerleading team has made great strides this year in participating and making themselves known as a club sport on campus.

Four years ago cheerleading was a sport on campus and was paid for by the athletics department. Due to lack of funding and participation, it was turned into a club sport. This year there are twenty-two students on the team, primarily freshman, and the team is much more prepared than previous years, according to its members.

One problem that the team faced was the fact that they didn't have an advisor. Since last year, Shirley English-Whitman volunteered herself. "We have seen how this program has developed and we want to make it go even further," said Richmond. "We started planning everything last year, and it helps that we already knew we had an advisor."

Co-captain Hannah Irving said, "We put a lot of effort into talking to the right people and getting an advisor so that we could stunt. The fact that we're able to stunt this year, when in previous years we have not, definitely upped participation."

"My role is to guide the group in fund raising, recruitment strategies and to troubleshoot any issues," said advisor English-Whitman. "The team's success really is a tribute to the energy and positive attitude that the students bring to every practice."

With five returning students including captains, Hannah Irving and Christine Richmond, the team is happy with the freshman involvement. "The freshmen have been great at learning the cheers and working together! I'm really impressed at all their talent," said Richmond.

"They are very supportive of one another and work together to ensure that at the end of the day everyone has had a positive experience," said English-Whitman. The team has fundraising events planned including canning outside of Wal-Mart, 50/50 raffles, as well as a possible poker tournament.

The team's first performance was at "Rage in the Cage," on October 30th. They will also be performing at all of the men's home basketball games and possibly at hockey games as well.

"I think we did a terrific job at Rage in the Cage," said sophomore member Kaitlyn Caluori. "We worked really hard all semester and we all had positive attitudes that we would do well."