Stress Test Before Spring Break? Cheerleaders Still Have Black Friday.
April 15, 2010 by Lauren
Filed under Fall Sports, Student Life
Many students do not remember the original “Black Friday.” “Black Friday” was the day that many selective clubs and activities posted who made it. While this practice has changed due to clubs moving deadlines, there is still one dreaded event before spring break: cheerleading trouts.
Girls that are trying out may feel the stress when March rolls around. After turning in cheerleading forms to tryout, stretching, jumping, and cheering take place in order to prepare for cheerleading tryouts. Once stretching to get the painful splits down, and getting toe-touches at least 4 feet off the ground, the stress begins to pile on.
Clinics are held previous to the actual tryouts. Girls only have two days to learn a four-minute dance, a cheer, and a chant to perform for judges at the tryout. Seniors from the previous year’s cheerleading squad teach underclassmen the material that needs to be learned. After being taught, girls that are trying out come together as a whole and recite the material as if it were a “mock tryout.”
After the cheerleading clinics, girls are most likely to retreat home with friends to practice and get constructive criticism on their execution of the routine. The night before tryouts is probably the most stressful to girls, piling the routines into their minds to get it down pat for the tryouts. Katherine Koss, who is trying out for her upcoming junior year, thinks “it is stressful because you’ve worked so hard all year and all you have is that one tryout to prove to the judges that you can be on the team.”
“It is so much fun to go to the clinic and go home to practice, you feel so confident and ready! The most stressful part comes on that last day after the clinics, when you’re sitting in class and all you can think about is that cheer, chant, and dance. It is like nothing really matters that day and everything is a big blur…” says Emily Heath, uprising senior. “You just wish you had five more minutes to practice right before you walk in the doors to the gym to tryout.”
Kelly Grant, who is going on her second year cheering for North Augusta High School thinks tryouts are stressful because “You are facing three judges that you only have one shot to give all you’ve got. Also, the pressures of knowing you don’t have a guaranteed spot for making the team. The worst part for me is waiting on the phone call to see if I made it!”
Cheering in front of a massive crowd of many people for the North Augusta Yellow Jackets may seem like a piece of cake for some former cheerleaders, but when spring time arrives, and tryouts come, it may seem like it is the most difficult thing to do just to cheer in front of three judges. Page Barnes thinks cheering in front of the judges makes the “stress level a 10. We get no sleep the night before of tryouts because we practice so hard to prepare ourselves. You are exhausted when you walk into tryouts.”
From hearing from the girls that have tried out, it may seem that the stress level rises for all the girls. The week of school before Spring Break is a breeze for some students, but is considered one of the worst weeks of the school year for those wishing to be a NAHS cheerleader. But after that call from the official to announce that you have made the Junior Varsity or Varsity cheerleading squad, spring break is a breeze.
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