Josh Levine
staff writer

After eight weeks, two pep rally performances and one football game performance, varsity cheer had their first competition of the season, an invitational at Whitman on Oct. 13.

Varsity placed fifth out of 11 teams. “We were well prepared after several practices, but did not place as well as we thought we would,” sophomore Emma Hoffman said.
The routine was well-performed with a total of seven deductions, which the team is working on perfecting for upcoming events. “We need to work more on keeping our stunts perfectly in the air and staying clean through the whole routine if we want to be more successful in the future,” junior Antonia Roach said.

At the start of the season, the team consisted of 12 girls and soon had two junior varsity freshmen pulled up, freshman Nicole Wassermann and Yael Rosen. With the season more than halfway through, all members on the team are dedicated to the sport, working together to advance to regionals and the state finals. “Last season advancing to states felt so great for the team and I hope to get the same thing accomplished this season,” sophomore Eleni Jones said.

The upcoming Division I county competition will take place on Oct. 27 at Blair. “This is a huge competition for the team and we are all putting in the work to make it where we hope to be, on top,” sophomore Danielle Berman said.

Tickets for this competition will be on sale during lunch and during the home football game vs. Walkersville. These tickets are $5.

The team is encouraging students to attend. “Not many people attended our first competition at Whitman, and I hope to see many familiar faces in the bleachers at our county competition,” senior Maddy Elster said.

The team cheers at all football games during the fall. During winter season, there is tryouts again for the people interested in winter cheer. The winter cheer team perform at most basketball games and has competitions just like the fall team. People are encouraged to come for winter cheer because last year they had small number try out. The team is determined to finish higher than they did last year.