On November 27, 2024 the cheerleaders began their winter season. Even though they are about midway through their season, they are still continuing to prepare for games.
After football season, the Bulldog cheerleaders had to immediately prepare for the upcoming boys basketball season. There are a variety of tasks the cheerleaders still are preparing for such as halftime dances.
Senior cheerleader Ava Foertch explains, “I have learned many dances throughout my four years of high school cheerleading. Even though they are past dances, we still relearn them and take the time perfecting them for specific halftimes during the boys basketball games. This year we were able to do more dances than previous years.”
The Bulldog cheerleaders recently performed their annual Christmas dance.
Foertch adds, “During the closest home game to Christmas, we always perform a Christmas dance. This dance includes pajamas, Christmas bows, and a Christmas song. This dance is one of my favorites because it is much different from any other performance we do.”
Along with these halftime dances that the cheerleaders perform, they also have to perform floor cheers or quarter cheers.
Senior cheerleader Katarina Candor exemplifies, “At every game, home and away, we perform quarter cheers or floor cheers. We do these cheers between the first and second quarter or between the third and fourth quarter during the boys game. These cheers are similar to our regular sideline cheers, just longer and added tumbling is included.”
Candor adds, “Like the halftime dances, we use previous floor cheers during the season. This year we decided to create 2 more for a wider variety for the crowds.”
For this winter season, the cheerleaders have to perform a starting five cheer. This cheer occurs before the game begins.
Junior cheerleader Adison Lenox explains, “The announcers of the game announce the starting five players of each team and in between the announcing of each player we do a cheer until all players are announced. We used the same starting five as last year, however, we still took a few practices reviewing it.”
Lenox adds, “When we participate in the starting five cheer and the players are being announced, this cheer is important because it sets the tone for the game. This series of cheers also is important because it gets the players ready and excited for a win.”
For the Bulldog cheerleaders, tumbling plays a huge role in basketball cheerleading. The cheerleaders tend to tumble much more than the fall football season.
Junior cheerleader Joscelyn Burkey explains, “This season is my first year doing cheerleading for basketball. I enjoy tumbling much more often during basketball games. It is much easier to tumble in a gym rather than outside on a track. We are now able to tumble during time outs across the floor.”
The cheerleaders also are able to tumble during some of their other dances and cheers.
Burkey describes, “Along with tumbling across the floor during time outs, we also tumble during our starting five cheer, some of our floor cheers, and our dances. There are much more opportunities to tumble during a basketball game rather than a football game.”
When the Bulldog cheerleaders do not participate in doing a half time dance, they find a variety of games and activities for the crowd to participate in as well.
Senior cheerleader Adrienne Rich interprets, “We have one game a year where we do the duck toss game. This game is during varsity half time, however, all of the cheerleaders sell the ducks during the JV and varsity games. The audience then throws their ducks into the center of the court and whoever is closest to the center wins. This game is used to raise money and the winner wins half the money that was raised.”
In addition to the duck game, the cheerleaders also put on half court shots during half time at some of the varsity games.
Rich exemplifies, “During some of the varsity games, we allow the audience to attempt to shoot half court shots for a dollar each. Both the duck game and the half court shots get the audience more involved and excited for the game.”
The Bulldog cheerleaders have been having a very good season so far and will continue to prepare for games.
