Give me an M, gimme an M, gimme an S! Go Mayfield! Those are the cheers of Mayfield’s very own cheerleaders. The football cheerleaders are far into their season,working hard to show school spirit and cheering on our players at home games.

The tryouts for the team were held last year in April for cadettes and the cheer squad. This year, we have a group of eleven eighth-grade girls on the team. Needed skills include performing jumps, dances, and tricks including cartwheels, flips, high kicks, and splits.

For Miss Fasola, sixth-grade teacher on the All Star team and also Co-Coach of the cheer team with Miss Djukic, this is her first year coaching the team. She says she’s done Cheer in the past in middle and high school and wants the girls to have the same experience as she did.  She added that was drawn to the coaching position because she likes forming relationships with kids, and at the same time, can do something that she loved.

Some things that the cheerleaders do during the games are pumping up the crowd and doing a dance routine at the halftime performance.

Mary Kate Clancy says her position on the team is in the back row. The team is mostly arranged based on height with taller people in the back, and some of the girls who have louder voices are also in the back. She says she likes the energy of cheer: “When you look at the crowd and, you feel the pressure of it. But you cheer for them, your peers.”  Her favorite part about the team is the girls. She explains that they support her, pull her up when she’s down, and make her feel comfortable.

Shayla Thurman, another cheerleader elaborates on that. She says that the girls on the team are really nice, and when they learn new cheers, they help each other out. She says that she’s always wanted to do cheer since she was a little girl, and, now she’s living it.

Emily Folliett from team Ignite said that she loves doing cheer because she loves being a role model for kids who are younger than her. She added that she loves hanging out with friends who are also on the team. One thing that she finds to be very hard is doing the jumps correctly and landing the right way.

This isn’t the last we’ll see of the the cheer team; the football squad will hype up the crowd at the football team’s last game, and then a new squad will lead the spirit as basketball season begins this winter. 

Paydo, John