For the majority of athletes, the changing of the seasons means the end of their sport. But cheerleading and poms are unique as they have both a fall and winter season, which flows one into another. This gives them the opportunity to forge stronger bonds, further develop their performances and represent the school longer than other teams.
Although some team members leave or join between the seasons, the groups largely remain the same. “You can choose to do either fall or winter but most people do it for both,” junior cheerleader Jenny Brailovsky said.
The two seasons differ in what they include. For cheer, fall includes responsibilities at the football games and their competition season. Meanwhile, the winter is primarily for cheering at basketball games without competitions. “Fall is our competition season so it’s way more hardcore and we are practicing every day. Winter is more chill and we will typically do our preparation directly on game day,” Brailovsky said.
Meanwhile poms has it the opposite way. For them, the fall season is primarily focused on halftime performances for football games. The winter season is when they have their competitions, as well as halftime performances at basketball games to practice their competition dance. Poms placed third in their first competition of the year on Saturday, Jan. 11. “I view fall as the fun part of the season where we get out our creative juices, everyone gets a chance to be in the front and a chance to be seen. But for competition it has to be perfect, and the attitude shifts,” poms coach Mia Krawczel said.
The order of their competition season creates differences between cheer and poms. “I feel like they have it so rough. Cheer has to show up for every football game and in like a month have their competition routine ready. So it’s stressful pressure right away, whereas we have so much time to prepare,” Krawczel said.
Another difference between the two teams is that poms is not recognized by the county as a two-season sport. “I definitely think we should get recognized for all the hours and time we put in because it is supposed to be a one season sport, but it goes to two seasons. It’s not recognized by MCPS or in my coach’s stipend as two seasons,” Krawzcel said.
One element of the multi-season sports is the level of closeness that the teams develop and the amount of time they spend together. “I definitely think we have a family culture for better or for worse. I think that it gets to a point in the season where we’re so close that you might start talking to someone like they are your sister or family member, and then it’s like woah, actually we’re here to work hard and then leave,” Krawzcel said.
The situation is different for athletes on cheer or poms who only decide to do one of the two seasons. Junior Angelina Huang has previously done both seasons of cheerleading but this year only did the winter season. “I think the fall season has a better sense of community and everyone is more together. I think in the winter season everyone is there mainly to cheer and we don’t talk quite as much,” Huang said.
Overall, there are positives and negatives to having an extended season. But the teams use the unusual schedule to their advantage. “In the winter season we can start preparing for the upcoming year. So it’s better that we have the two seasons,” Brailovsky said.
