What is Senior Night?
As the Fall Sports season comes to an end, seniors get to look back on their last football season as a Helix Cheerleader. Senior night is a night to honor graduating students in their sports teams, in this case, cheer! This event takes place on the last home game or performance of the season. We get to recognize their contribution, dedication, and achievements they have earned throughout their years as a cheerleader.
Senior Spotlight!
Zane Roth, who is now Captain of the Varsity cheer team, is someone who is enthusiastic, funny, and charismatic. He has been a part of the cheer team for 3 years. During these years he has had so much fun, but his favorite year was his first. During this time he says they had just come back from covid, and transitioned into high school. He also includes that all the seniors who had previously gone to the same middle school as him were also cheerleaders, so coming together at practices and games was nice, considering grades would usually be separated, and he would look up to the seniors as well.
What would life be like if we were in different shoes? In this case, what is it like to be in a cheerleader’s shoes?
In Zane´s world, “Being a helix cheerleader has been a rewarding and enduring experience, I am grateful to have been welcomed to the program my sophomore year and am even more pleased to have grown as much as I did as an athlete throughout my time here.” So, as the season comes to an end, all we can do is look back on the memories and look forward to the next! How do senior cheerleaders feel about their season coming to an end though? Zane expresses, “I’m sad to see football season go, but I am really excited for competition season and basketball coming up in the winter!”
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As football season comes to an end, the cheer teams’ hard work and countless practices will continue in order to excel, and do well in our upcoming competitions. Before moving on, I asked Zane one last question. “What advice do you have for future cheerleaders?” He believes, “Embrace new changes, and always know that mistakes are learning experiences, not resting spots! Rejection is redirection.” So to all the aspiring and returning cheerleaders, remember it is okay to make mistakes because in the end, you learn from them.
As Zane loves to say, ¨ Let’s go Scotties!!!
Another Senior on the Helix cheer team, Sydney Hurdsman, who is also the Varsity team’s Captain, is someone who I have looked up to since I first began cheer. She is very enlightening to be around, and every practice she makes sure to help everyone (especially me) with things we are struggling on. She is a great definition of a leader and she continues to show this throughout the season. But, since the Fall season is almost over, I asked her how she felt about it coming to an end. She reflects, “Football season is probably one of my favorite things about cheer, but I am excited to cheer for basketball and see the end result of our comp routine continuing the rest of our season into winter.” Again, the team is sad with the season coming to an end, but we are looking forward to our upcoming competition season! The time Sydney has spent on the team has been filled with great memories, and the building of strong relationships to which she provides, “I have done four years of cheer at helix, my first year on the freshman team and three years on varsity sideline and comp. Each year was exciting for different reasons but my favorite year is probably my senior year.”
So, naturally, I would assume she has love for this sport, which is why she continued it all 4 years. She agrees, “My overall experience as a Helix Cheerleader is definitely something I will always remember. Being in cheer, you are very reliant on your teammates to succeed compared to other sports I have played growing up. Teamwork is probably the most important factor in cheer. I have felt like through my full four years, it has been a very exciting sport, but also pushes me. I love cheering at games and especially succeeding with and bonding closer to my teammates” I wholeheartedly agree, teamwork is such an important aspect of cheerleading, to which teamwork only makes us stronger. So before Sydney retires as a Helix Cheerleader, her wise words of wisdom is, “ don’t be too hard on yourself. They will always be good and bad days, so don’t blame yourself because you can’t control it.” Not only in cheer, but with everything in life there will be good days and bad days.
The only thing you can control is what you do with what has happened to you. And although she will move on with her life, apart from Helix she will always be a scottie at heart because, “Once a scottie, always a scottie!”
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These seniors will be missed by the cheer community and remembered for all the effort they had put into making this team stronger. But, we don’t need to say goodbye to them just yet! Our comp season, and basketball season are on the calendar!
