To say that the GCHS Varsity Cheerleading team has been successful in recent years would be an understatement. In fact, they have been undoubtedly the winningest sport at Grant since 2013.

Four state plaques hang on the wall in the Bendetti Center Fieldhouse, the two most recent coming from Cheer. A 3rd Place finish in 2013, and the highest place finish in a state tournament in school history. A 2nd place finish last season in February, just two points off from taking home a state championship.

Some other notable accolades include placing 1st at the annual Stevenson Competition to kick off the season, seven consecutive years in a row. And in the 12 years that Cheerleading has been an IHSA sanctioned sport, there has yet to be a single season where they haven’t qualified for state.

It seems that Cheer has established itself into an apparent “powerhouse” program, not just within our school, but throughout the state and known within other cheer programs as well. They aren’t showing any signs of slowing down either, six freshman, as well as eight sophomores were pulled up for this winter competition season, meaning that more than half of the team is made up of underclassmen.

For that many underclassmen to be placed on Varsity, the level of skill is apparent but one problem that that can convey is leadership problems due to lack of experience.

Head Coach Mrs. Joray takes into consideration that the team is young, and makes the accommodations necessary in order to keep leadership traits balanced across the team. “I guess I’ve had to shift things as a coach this year, and really work on leadership and tried to get my underclassmen to start becoming better leaders, even though they’re only freshman and sophomores. We do leadership meetings outside of practice and really just try to develop them.” Quotes Joray.

In the meantime of developing some of the younger teammates, the upperclassmen are looked upon to step up and lead them in the right direction. Three-year Varsity Cheerleader, Lexi Georgia knows a bit about that, “Leading the team can be challenging at times because the underclassmen don’t understand high school cheer and the different rules and regulations there are, so we have to re-teach little stuff like the importance of yelling in a routine. As a leader I have to stay focused myself and set a good example for them, as well as the rest of the team. Keeping a positive attitude is the key to being a great leader and is the only way to get a lot done during practices.”

The freshman aren’t the only new faces to the Varsity Cheer team, they’ve also added three senior boys, Ryan Tevaga, Stephen Reisig, and Tyler Fritsch. One of the three guys from the trio, Ryan Tevaga speaks on what influenced him to try out for Cheer, what it’s like to join a new sport and stepping into a new environment, “I looked at it, that it was my senior year, and thought that doing something new was a part of going through high school. I just wanted to experience it, and see what it was like.”

In order to be considered a Co-Ed Cheer Team, you need to have at least two males, and the Grant Varsity Cheer Team has a total of six, five of them being Seniors. This can be used as a huge advantage when it comes to yelling during a routine and possibly give a team the edge in a competition.

Although, as this can be seen as an advantage, like all other sports, anything can happen. In cheer, even more so, because one of the top ranked teams in the state could have a minor slip-up and then everything falls apart. With other sports, for the most part, you know a gist of what you’re going to get, even if a team has a bad game. At a cheer competition, you have one chance to perform a routine and that’s it.

Mrs. Joray talks about the importance of that, “With cheerleading, it’s really unpredictable. When you go into a competition it’s pretty much, are you going to hit your routine or not, that’s one of the biggest differences between cheerleading and other sports…and even if you perform well, you never really know where you stand because it’s always comparing to the other teams in the competition.”

Even with the unpredictability of competitions, the expectations for the Cheer program stay the same, no matter the year, or who’s on their roster, and that’s a bid to state. In this season, and in years past, each and every cheerleader has worked hard to continue the winning tradition of this decorated program.