Football season is wrapped up, and it is getting colder each day as we move into the winter months. The winter brings Capital City High School much joy; we are almost to Thanksgiving Break, Christmas trees will soon be put up and decorated with love, and the ending of the term craziness sets in. Adding to the wintry months ahead, basketball season is tipping off, and the cheerleading team is getting ready to support the team.

The cheerleading team is preparing for basketball season by beginning to learn new cheers, chants, and stunts that fly higher every time. The cheer team learns cheers for each season, a set for football and a set for basketball to wow the crowd. “Some new stunts that we are practicing and that might make an appearance at the games are ball backs, extensions, and baskets. A ball back is when the flyer jumps back into the arms of the base, and then the base pushes her up to where she is standing. An extension is where the flyer is standing in the air above the heads of the bases, and not at shoulder height like you normally see. Lastly, a basket is where the bases are holding the flyer with their wrists, and throw the flyer up and she does a toe touch in the air. These are new for us, because we just recently learned them, and we haven’t performed some of these this year at games,” said Sophomore Alahna Leavell.

There are many changes that go on when switching seasons for the girls. One drastic change is the placement of where the cheerleaders cheer and stunt. In football season, the girls have an ample amount of space to spread out and give enough room for jumps, kicks, and more. With moving indoors, the girls are standing in a much smaller space behind the baskets. Even though the girls don’t have as much space as the length of the track,  at basketball games the girls will stunt right in front of the crowd on the actual court. “Cheering at basketball games is definitely easier in terms of being able to see what’s going on during the game, and people aren’t blocking your view. Although it’s a lot easier to see the game, there’s less of a crowd which makes it hard to get a big hype. I wouldn’t say stunting is too different between the two except placement and how close we are to the crowd, but by the time we get to basketball season, we have new, and more improved stunts to show off compared to football,” explained Sophomore Sydney Kessel.

From toe touches in the air, to getting the student section involved, the cheer team is always working hard for each sport at CCHS to have the most support possible!