By Caiyu Keoviengxay
Trying something new with no experience or knowledge of the subject can be difficult and it puts a lot of pressure on a person to not mess it up when it comes to the true test of skill. These are the circumstances the first TPA cheer team had to go through and they did amazing, not cracking under all the pressure at the first football game of the season. They rallied up the crowd and provided amazing support for the football team.
The cheer team is coached by Vanessa Rodriguez who I had the pleasure of interviewing after the game along with Morgan Cryder and Kendal Kerber. When I asked Coach V, as her team calls her, what her goals are for the upcoming season of sports, she said: “I want everyone to have fun and I hope to bring people together.” As for the future of cheer team, she wants to expand to other sports and extend the seasons cheer team participates in.
A freshman on the team, Kendal Kerber, was very enthusiastic when I interview her after the game. She loves her coach and her team a lot. I asked her why she chose cheer instead of a different team and she said, “As a little girl, I always wanted to cheer and when I found out that TPA was getting a cheer team, I had to join.” Kendal and team member Brooke Kirk both have dance backgrounds and Kendal thinks that having that dance background really helps with different aspects of cheer. “I love my coaches, I love my captains, and I can’t wait to see cheer grow!”
One of the people who helped make cheer into a TPA club along with Bella Schmoker and Brooke is Morgan Cryder, one of the captains of the cheer team, the other being Bella. Like the rest of the team, Morgan is very energetic during the game and she puts her all into this sport. When I asked what she wanted to do with cheer, she told me, “I want to encourage younger boys and girls to join cheer team and hopefully do more advanced stunts.” She put her heart and soul into making a cheer team into a reality and like others, she wants to bring more support to TPA as does the rest of the cheer team.