By: Brandy Peck
March 3 ‘2024
In everybody’s life, there comes a point where they look back and reflect on their past. It can be as clear as a still lake or as choppy as the harshest sea. For Jennifer and Izabelle this might be that time when they are looking back and reflecting on their competitive cheer careers.
Imagine your favorite sport is coming to an end where you won’t be seeing it next year. A sport that has given you family, friends, life long memories and you have to say goodbye, for good. For the Seniors at Hamilton High School, Jennifer Lambers and Izabelle Ruggles this is becoming a reality. Let’s take a dive into the past and see what Jen and Izzy think about their competitive cheer careers.
Jen and Izzy both started their competitive cheer careers in 7th grade, both did not know how important and how much a family the competitive cheer teams would become to them. I asked Jen and Izzy both “If you could describe cheer in one word, what would it be and why?” “Family,” Jen said “This sport creates such tight friendships and family.” You spend every day after school together for 2 hours practicing, and longer at Wednesday night competitions and all day Saturday competitions.
Izzy used the word trust. “Trust, I would use this word because you can not stunt without trusting eachother and you can not go out on the mat in full confidence without trusting each other. You have to trust that your teammates will do what they are supposed to. Flyers have to trust that the backspots and bases won’t drop them and the backspot and bases have to trust that the flyers are going to do their job.”
Cheerleading helps girls grow as people, not just in their sport but in the real world as well. “Cheer has helped me grow with handling challenges and making new friend’s” Izzy said. If a stunt drops the girls can not just walk away from the problem, they have to work to fix it. A stunt group this year had been trying all year to hit their libs, and it just was not hitting. The girls stuck with it and every practice when they had time they would go work on it making corrections and changes to get something to work. Finally the stunt was hitting and got put in for the last competition of the season.
“It has taught me self”discipline and bravery,” Jen said. You put so much effort and time into this sport after school and on your weekends. It takes so much bravery, if your a base or backspot and the flyer starts to fall, one second it’s all good and the next all you see is a body coming at you.
What has been your favorite part of cheer and why? “My favorite part of cheer is the journey and growth of myself and my teammates.” If you go into cheer you can’t be average. You have to be willing to take criticism and turn that into something good to help you become better. Izzy said, “My favorite part of cheer was the relationships I’ve built with my teammates and how close I became with everyone.” If you are a flyer and your base catches you every time you fall there is going to be a good bond built from that alone.
Jen and Izzy might not know what their futures hold for them, but they know that cheer has helped them grow in handling challenges, fixing problems, having positive attitudes in bad situations and being leaders and good team members. They have had great middle/ high school competitive cheer careers and will take their lessons from cheer and bring them through their lives with them.