Cheerleaders+represent+blue+and+white



By Katie Co-Sports Editor
 * Cheerleaders represent blue and white

The Burrell High School cheerleaders dazzled the crowd on Friday nights at the football games. From exciting cheers to intense tumbling, the BHS cheerleaders can do it all. Not only do they cheer at football games, but cheerleaders are also found at basketball games, soccer games, and even wrestling matches. The girls that proudly cheer love to represent Burrell’s blue and white teams. Senior Madison Cowen is one of the varsity captains this year. Cowen stated, “I like being a captain. It’s nice to be able to help the girls and make up stunts. It’s just hard sometimes when no one listens to you.” Cowen has been cheering at Burrell for four years, and has been a member of the varsity squad for three years. Sophomore Jamie Herstek, another varsity squad member commented, “It’s an honor to be on varsity as a sophomore, considering there are only 2 sophomores on varsity this year.” Herstek has been tumbling since third grade. She has been going to the American Gymnastics Academy (AGA) for gymnastics, and loves cheering for the high school. “Being in front of the crowd and [representing] Burrell is definitely the best part of cheering,” commented Herstek. When asked if the girls get along well, Herstek said, “We’re not really all close friends, but we are while we’re cheering. Since we all get along, it helps our performance and makes everything a lot more fun.” This year, the junior varsity and varsity squads were seen cheering together at varsity football games. Sophomore Brittany Fennell said, “I think we’re a good squad when varsity and JV cheer together.” Varsity Coach Jessi Spear said, “The decision to combine the varsity and junior varsity squads this year came from the small numbers of participants we have during this current year. The number of girls on JV is only nine and the number of girls on Varsity is only 12. I usually take a total of 20 girls for the Varsity squad alone but I wanted to keep a JV squad instead of eliminating it completely this year. Therefore, the JV coach and I decided to split the girls into two squads but cheer together during the football season. We had every intention of separating the squads again for spring sports season but let the decision up to the girls whether they wanted to cheer separately or together. They chose to stay and cheer together for the spring seasons sports .” Even though the squads cheer together at most events, the junior varsity and varsity have different uniforms. Fennell commented, “If there was one thing I could change about either squad, it would be that we had the same uniforms and pom-poms.” The squad this year looked particularly good at the varsity football games. Spear praised, “The squad has performed very well this year with their stunting. This year's squad has pulled together some great stunts that require level changes, stunts that are unique and have never been done before, and some stunts that have been pulled from previous years.” Even though new cheers and stunts have been added, one specific cheer seems to be a fan favorite, commonly known as “The magic trick”. Burrell students love when the girls spell out B-U-C-S with their pom-poms. It is by far, the favorite cheer of Burrell students. Whenever the football team scores a touchdown, the cheerleaders throw out footballs to the fans in the stands. At a few of the games the girls threw out t-shirts with Burrell businesses who sponsored the football team advertised on the back. BHS cheerleaders always keep the crowd on their toes. Even though the football season has come to an end, Burrell fans can still expect to see the cheerleaders at wrestling matches and basketball games. If the student body still has not seen the cheerleaders in action yet, make it a point to go to one of those sporting events soon. Burrell cheerleaders truly are the spirit of Burrell.**