By Matt Browning
Being a cheerleader for Southeast of Saline means a 10 or 11 month commitment, while also being a prominent figure in the school and community.
“The cheer season is very long, we typically are in season for 10 or 11 months out of the year,” said Southeast of Saline coach Ashley Long. “We start our cheer season with tryouts usually in late March. This gives us time to figure out when we will be attending cheer camp which is typically in early June. We then start practice three mornings a week over summer break.”
“Along with attending all varsity football games, we also do some volunteering at our communities Fall Festivals and hold a Jr. Cheer Team Clinic where our local elementary students cheer with the team at a home varsity football game.”
Tryouts for the Trojan cheer squad is an arduous process where Long uses a scoring system to determine who makes the team.
“Tryouts are done in groups of three or four and then scores are averaged,” Long said. “I choose the members of the team by either taking the top 14 or wherever there is a large gap in tryout scores. I also will sometimes do a teacher survey for teachers to fill out on the tryout candidates to break any ties or give any information to take into consideration.”
Long believes that her team can make a significant impact on the atmosphere of a sporting event in a variety of ways.
“An effective cheer team will know when it is the right time to lead the crowd in a positive way to cheer on their team,” Long said. “But there is more to it than just leading the crowd at games. It is important that the cheerleaders have the respect of their crowd, otherwise there will not be the buy-in to follow the lead of the cheerleaders.”
The seniors on Southeast of Saline’s team are Josie Leeds, Micah Willis and Kiley Issacson.
