August 09, 2019 at 01:31AM
SHERIDAN — From Friday night lights to Saturday morning basketball and everything in between, the Sheridan High School cheer team is tasked to engage the crowd and maintain an electric atmosphere surrounding Broncs athletics.
Cheering on teams stacked with All-State talent and a Gatorade Player of the Year, the cheer team continues its own high achievement, adding four members to the Varsity Spirit All-American program. To earn the honor, SHS senior Clara Syring, juniors Payton Rott and Julie Smart and sophomore Jessie Jolovich learned and performed a routine in front of National Cheerleaders Association staff and the entire SHS cheer team. Each one had to do the routine on their own.
"Watching [a Varsity staff member] doing cheers or performing jumps, it is picture-perfect," Rott said. "It was kinda intimidating. She had perfect muscles, form and everything. It was very impressive."
Most staff members are college cheerleaders, SHS cheer head coach Stephanie Vela said.
The cheer routine was the same one performed by tens of thousands of cheerleaders attending Varsity Spirit camps across the nation.
Being scored by NCA staff, cheerleaders have to earn 23 out of 30 points to be accepted into the All-American program. Only the cheerleaders who receive nominations while attending the camps are allowed to try out for the program. Twelve percent of those attending the camps will be accepted into the program, a press release by Varsity Spirit said.
All four girls were nervous heading into the routine. Syring recalls messing up part of the routine, thinking that was the end of it. Being a senior, this was her last year to become an All-American.
All the girls said they were very excited to hear their name be called, hearts pounding in their chest.
"My heart was palpitating and my stomach was full of butterflies," Jolovich said. "When I got nominated I was really excited but I thought 'I am going to screw up somewhere.' When my name was called I got really excited, coach Vela was not able to get a photo of me because I ran up to the front so fast."
Sheridan decided to host their own cheer camp during the summer instead of traveling to a camp to make it more cost-effective for the students, Vela said. The closest Varsity Cheer camp was in Bozeman, Montana, or Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Twenty-three members of SHS cheer attended the camp, with nine receiving nominations to try out for the All-American program. The most nominations SHS has received under Vela.
In addition to holding the title of All-American, Smart, Syring and Jolovich will participate in the London New Year's Day Parade. They will be joined by 1,000 other cheerleaders from across the nation. The Lady Broncs will receive the performance routine information later in the fall. The three girls are expected to learn the routine and be ready to perform when they arrive in London. Vela, Syring and Smart will spend a week in England enjoying different sightseeing opportunities, Smart said.
Rott, who is captain of the cheer team this year, will participate in the Varsity Spirit Spectacular at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, Nov. 21-25. This performance is reserved specifically for high school cheer captains, co-captains and officers, Rott said and there will be more than 800 cheerleaders participating in the parade. She will receive her routine for the parade later in the fall.
Syring and Smart are also captains of the cheer team for Sheridan. Vela said she is proud of the girls for receiving this opportunity. Vela coached Kim Solti and Abigail James, who were previously accepted into the program. Solti and James were both seniors, making Rott and Smart the first juniors to be in the program and Jolovich the youngest All-American cheerleader Vela has coached.
The responsibilities of learning another routine will stack on top of other of cheer practice duties and maintaining a high scholastic average Vela said.
Syring said as a team, they have been working out all summer and will have two-a-day practices at the same time as the football team. During the season, the SHS cheer team learns up to 70 different cheers and prepares routines/cheers for competition in the fall and state cheer in March.
During everything, the four girls will need to raise the funds to attend the events in London and Orlando. They have started the process by working concessions at Sheridan Troopers and Jets baseball games during the summer while also hosting raffles. They will continue to fundraise into the fall.
From the experience, Rott expects to gain leadership skills and aquire team bonding ideas from the other captains in attendance.
Smart also sees this as an opportunity to learn new things.
"It is really good to get different perspectives from other teams," Smart said. "There are always things our team can do to improve. It will be great to talk to the other girls and get new ideas."
Vela said this is a great opportunity for the four girls going to network with other cheerleaders and coaches at high school and college levels. This can help open up scholarship opportunities.
The decerated SHS cheer team will be on the sidelines of Bronc and Lady Bronc athletic events this year to pump up the crowd and cheer teams to victory.
SHERIDAN — From Friday night lights to Saturday morning basketball and everything in between, the Sheridan High School cheer team is tasked to engage the crowd and maintain an electric atmosphere surrounding Broncs athletics.
Cheering on teams stacked with All-State talent and a Gatorade Player of the Year, the cheer team continues its own high achievement, adding four members to the Varsity Spirit All-American program. To earn the honor, SHS senior Clara Syring, juniors Payton Rott and Julie Smart and sophomore Jessie Jolovich learned and performed a routine in front of National Cheerleaders Association staff and the entire SHS cheer team. Each one had to do the routine on their own.
"Watching [a Varsity staff member] doing cheers or performing jumps, it is picture-perfect," Rott said. "It was kinda intimidating. She had perfect muscles, form and everything. It was very impressive."
Most staff members are college cheerleaders, SHS cheer head coach Stephanie Vela said.
The cheer routine was the same one performed by tens of thousands of cheerleaders attending Varsity Spirit camps across the nation.
Being scored by NCA staff, cheerleaders have to earn 23 out of 30 points to be accepted into the All-American program. Only the cheerleaders who receive nominations while attending the camps are allowed to try out for the program. Twelve percent of those attending the camps will be accepted into the program, a press release by Varsity Spirit said.
All four girls were nervous heading into the routine. Syring recalls messing up part of the routine, thinking that was the end of it. Being a senior, this was her last year to become an All-American.
All the girls said they were very excited to hear their name be called, hearts pounding in their chest.
"My heart was palpitating and my stomach was full of butterflies," Jolovich said. "When I got nominated I was really excited but I thought 'I am going to screw up somewhere.' When my name was called I got really excited, coach Vela was not able to get a photo of me because I ran up to the front so fast."
Sheridan decided to host their own cheer camp during the summer instead of traveling to a camp to make it more cost-effective for the students, Vela said. The closest Varsity Cheer camp was in Bozeman, Montana, or Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Twenty-three members of SHS cheer attended the camp, with nine receiving nominations to try out for the All-American program. The most nominations SHS has received under Vela.
In addition to holding the title of All-American, Smart, Syring and Jolovich will participate in the London New Year's Day Parade. They will be joined by 1,000 other cheerleaders from across the nation. The Lady Broncs will receive the performance routine information later in the fall. The three girls are expected to learn the routine and be ready to perform when they arrive in London. Vela, Syring and Smart will spend a week in England enjoying different sightseeing opportunities, Smart said.
Rott, who is captain of the cheer team this year, will participate in the Varsity Spirit Spectacular at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, Nov. 21-25. This performance is reserved specifically for high school cheer captains, co-captains and officers, Rott said and there will be more than 800 cheerleaders participating in the parade. She will receive her routine for the parade later in the fall.
Syring and Smart are also captains of the cheer team for Sheridan. Vela said she is proud of the girls for receiving this opportunity. Vela coached Kim Solti and Abigail James, who were previously accepted into the program. Solti and James were both seniors, making Rott and Smart the first juniors to be in the program and Jolovich the youngest All-American cheerleader Vela has coached.
The responsibilities of learning another routine will stack on top of other of cheer practice duties and maintaining a high scholastic average Vela said.
Syring said as a team, they have been working out all summer and will have two-a-day practices at the same time as the football team. During the season, the SHS cheer team learns up to 70 different cheers and prepares routines/cheers for competition in the fall and state cheer in March.
During everything, the four girls will need to raise the funds to attend the events in London and Orlando. They have started the process by working concessions at Sheridan Troopers and Jets baseball games during the summer while also hosting raffles. They will continue to fundraise into the fall.
From the experience, Rott expects to gain leadership skills and aquire team bonding ideas from the other captains in attendance.
Smart also sees this as an opportunity to learn new things.
"It is really good to get different perspectives from other teams," Smart said. "There are always things our team can do to improve. It will be great to talk to the other girls and get new ideas."
Vela said this is a great opportunity for the four girls going to network with other cheerleaders and coaches at high school and college levels. This can help open up scholarship opportunities.
The decerated SHS cheer team will be on the sidelines of Bronc and Lady Bronc athletic events this year to pump up the crowd and cheer teams to victory.