Cheer:
The OHS cheer team has been through countless wins and losses this season, but despite those minor setbacks, the girls on the team continue to endure and keep a positive attitude during their practices and competitions.
“We’ve just all been reworking and being positive the whole week knowing that we’re gonna go into the competition doing good and not having negative thoughts,” said Kennedy McNair, senior. “You have to be positive, if you’re not confident and you’re just in your head then you’ll most likely mess up.”
The cheer team has unique ways of keeping positivity present during practices and their methods have proven to be successful.
“We have this little jar where we put positive quotes, each practice we’ll make sure the seniors take out two quotes and say something positive,” McNair said.
Along with the positive mindsets comes the tough practices the girls on cheer have to endure in preparation for games and competitions.
“We have three practices a week, they start at 4:45 in the morning,” said Avery Denman, JV captain, sophomore. “I’m captain so I get to see it differently this year and I really love it; we’ve come really far.”
The team not only goes through several practices before school, but they practice at other places as well, which provides additional opportunities for the girls to work on their routines.
“We have after school [practices] on Tuesdays at 3:00 at a different cheer gym,” McNair said. “We’ve been doing good at our competitions and everything, and just taking it one step at a time.”
The OHS cheer team has been doing exceptionally well at their competitions, and all their effort shows the dedication present within the group.
“We’ve been doing good at a lot of comps, we won two and for our first comp we got into nationals…on the day before [competitions], we go full out and we have practice for two hours so that we know what we’re doing,” said Addison Plasters, sophomore.
The endless practices and time spent preparing for games, competitions, and nationals puts a lot of stress on the cheer team, but the positivity and community cheer provides encourages them to continue doing what they love.
“It’s a good program, it’ll take me very far, and it teaches you many different things…I think it’s stressful but it’s fun so it kind of cancels out,” Denman said.
Pom:
The pom team at OHS has worked extremely hard to perfect the routines they perform at games, competitions, and nationals. Those in pom, similarly to the cheer team, make sure all their effort shows in their fantastic performances.
“Practices start at 5:00 a.m. every morning and go until about 6:45…there we do our jazz and pom routines and it’s very hard,” said Josselyn Wolochuk, sophomore.
Similarly to the OHS cheer team, those in pom perform at games and competitions; they just do it a bit differently.
“Pom is more dance based and cheer is more stunts and tumbling,” Wolochuk said. “I grew up a dancer so [joining pom] was just more obvious, I cannot stunt.”
There are various reasons why athletes at OHS join pom instead of cheer, but it’s primarily due to their backgrounds in dance.
“I wanted to do it in college and also for the friendships and memories,” said Lucas Pier, sophomore. “I also do competitive dance outside of school with a dance studio.”
The OHS pom team performs tough routines at games and competitions but the team does everything in their power to ensure safety first.
“There’s always opportunity for injury, but we do a lot of injury prevention strengthening so that you can’t get hurt,” said Addyson Regnier, junior.
With the pom team being smaller than the cheer team, those on pom work towards being positive and supportive similarly to the girls on cheer.
“There’s 12 of us…I don’t know how many are on cheer but I’m pretty sure they have around five or six more than us,” Regnier said. “Everyone is very loving, open, and supportive.”
Even though there are some times when the team gets nervous, majority of the time the support the pom team provides helps them get through those anxious feelings.
“Practices are hard, but I get a lot more anxiety and stress at competitions before we take the floor,” Pier said. “For my first season on, though, it’s pretty good; everyone is so nice and it’s like one big family.”
It really comes down to the positive mindsets that the girls on pom have that makes them so resilient and determined.
“You have to be both mentally and physically prepared, so stretching and just honestly getting very zen before going in,” Wolochuk said. “It is very positive; everybody just wants the best for each other and just wants to see you succeed…it’s a very good family to be a part of.”
