One hundred bear crawls and some suicides later, I have realized- high school cheerleading is not easy whatsoever. It isn't just bows and woohoos. It is so much more than just laughter, pom poms, and pretty girls. It is passion, dedication, confidence, HIGH and CONSTANT energy, and true athleticism.

I can honestly say that I believe cheerleading is more difficult than many of my other sports. I find it much more difficult to follow a new dance routine than I do hitting or kicking a ball. In cheer, it's a big mental thing. Remembering over fifty cheers, chants. and band dances is not as easy as it seems. "Girls, do Go-Go Fight-Fight." or "WDHS- Eagles are the best" is what we hear from our coach when we're all lined up and organized on the track. To you, it's just a natural thing. But really, we've been working on these cheers non stop all Summer, memorizing lyrics, motions, and movements. In our heads, we have to differentiate between different motions and recognize which cheer is which, because trust me, when your school is the eagles, the colors green, black and white, are featured in many cheers. It is extremely easy to mix up the motions and the movements.

We do condition, I promise you. Games aren't just us watching and shouting, "Let's go!" There are moments where we're sprinting down the line in honor of a touchdown or doing 28 push-ups to celebrate 4 touchdowns and field goals. We run every day, we stretch, we dance, we repeat motions constantly, we lift each other up (in a physical and mental way!), and we work our butts off on the track and in the gym. We don't just put a bow in and yell at the football field. We really do put that work in, and I never knew how strenuous and demanding cheerleading actually was until I did it myself.

Of course, some sports are more demanding, and in some sports, you might run more or do more drills, but remember- that's what those sports are about. Here, we don't kick or hit balls. We dance and we move our bodies constantly. We require different training because we perform differently, but we are working extremely hard, and it is not as easy as some people make it out to be.

There are definitely different levels of cheerleading. The All Stars are incredible- and let me tell you, they work their butts off! And so do we, and I just want everyone to know that we really do take our sport seriously, even if a lot of the time, you see us smiling, happy, and excited. I mean hey, that is our job!

I'm not going to say we don't enjoy having fun or anything, though, because we totally do. We have a whole lot of fun, and for us, our fun is being on the track cheering and spreading positive vibes and excitement to all, even if some people don't really pay us any mind.

Just because you don't see us running two miles or doing one hundred squats does not mean we do not work as hard as those who do. When you perform differently, you train for the performance differently. Cheer really is a sport like no other. We don't bring any gloves, balls, or sticks- we only bring our bodies. We only have ourselves and our confidence. But for us, that is enough.