Cheer team preps for season
By Kaila Mellos
As the school year begins, the Scripps Ranch High School cheer team aimed to have an exciting kickoff. Their first event was the Freshman Falcon Pride Event on Aug. 16.
“It’s welcoming all the brand new freshmen to our school,” said Trishaa Camp, the Scripps Ranch High School cheer teacher. “That’s where they learn their first SRHS cheer, and we help them. We perform for them and greet them. They also got goody bags packed by the cheerleaders, ASB, the peer mentoring group, and Butterfly Effect group. So, all the different initiatives on our campus greet all these brand new kids.”
After this event, there are football games, one being the Homecoming game they will be cheering at on Sept. 23.
This year’s cheer team has already been bonding since spring break with a larger team than ever before.
Practicing Tuesdays through Thursdays over the summer, the 14-person freshman, 18-person junior var-
sity, and 21-person varsity teams have been working hard to get everything ready before their first events.
Each team has its captain and co-captains assisting them. For varsity, Melissa Howell is the head captain, with Maya Zurmuhle as technique captain, Kira Farias as dance coordinator captain and Alexis Bernabe as rules and attendance captain.
Freshman co-captains are Avery Martin and Giada Horton. JV head captain is Jordin McCrory.
As cheerleaders, their role on campus is to be spirit ambassadors.
“One of the major responsibilities is just implementing the spirit on campus, as well as their ambassadorship,” Camp said. “It’s about making sure people know what’s happening while also making sure people feel welcome when they come to our school. They cheer at all the events and just being there, supporting as many sporting events as possible.”
While being spirit ambassadors, they are also helping bring everyone together.
“Seeing the kids and the school have so much spirit and so much pride for itself and root each other on is so important,” Camp said. “We live in a society where it’s so easy to rip each other down. But that’s why I love cheering so much because it’s not about us; it’s teaching kids how to support each other, teaching kids how to root for each other.”
Along with cheering at sporting events, the team will compete for the first time in CIF competitions this year, representing Scripps Ranch High School.
“This year, we were talking about it, and the girls are excited to be able to compete, so we’re gonna compete this year,” Camp said. “We’re gonna represent our school in the CIF competition, which will be in December, and then we’ll just go from there.”
The competition will compare each team’s skills in multiple categories ranging from stunts to jumps.
“Our goal is to support our teams, but it’s hard to say we’re a sport if we don’t compete against the same people within what we do,” Camp said. “So, we would like to compete and do our sports side of cheerleading. Comparing our jumps to your jumps, our stunts to your stunts, we will compete in those levels.”
In between cheering and competing, the cheerleaders are creating lifelong friendships and building skills that will last.
“They feel super bonded and connected, and are very proud of themselves to be able to achieve those things,” Camp said. “I think it’s just a different type of dignity and pride they walk away with, and the sense of accomplishment.”
