After three months of cheering at football games and performing at pep rallies, the McCallum cheer team shifted their focus to their UIL competition in January in Fort Worth. With it being their second year participating in this competition, they have a better idea of what to expect going into it. Last year the team did not make it past the first round, but they have been working on their routine for this year in hopes of performing better.
For senior Selene Medina’s first year as a captain, she had to learn the responsibilities the captains have in the process of preparing for competition.
“As a captain, I’m responsible for keeping the team motivated while providing constructive feedback as we work towards growth and team goals,” Medina said.
Competition has been on the team’s mind since even before football season ended. Freshman Gabi Martinez notes that the team has been working on their routine for a few months now.
“We’ve been putting in many hours to create a perfect routine for our competition with our Cheer Station coach,” Martinez said. “Now that football season is over we can add more focus and precision to our training for our competition.”
Her first year on the team, Martinez is looking forward to her first UIL experience, as it brings different competition than cheering at district games.
“I am feeling excited and nervous at the same time,” Martinez said. “I have really built a connection with the team, and I feel like we are going to do really well. It is much different than football season because it is more of a personalized, looser performance or routine, as these aren’t things we’d do for pep rallies or on the field.”
Junior Marlowe Walsh went to UIL last year and is hopeful for the team to perform better this year.
“I’m hopeful that we’re going to make it to finals this year, so we can place a little bit higher than we placed last year because we’ve been working really hard on this routine,” Walsh said. “I feel like we are more competition-ready this time this year than we were last year.”
Similarly, Medina feels like the team is better prepared going into the competition this time around.
“Because last year was McCallum cheerleading’s first-ever UIL competition, I feel that our team is better prepared and has a better understanding of what to expect going into the competition,” Medina said. “With prior experience, we have the ability to build off of last year’s scores to improve specified areas.”
For their performance at UIL, the cheer team has a two-and-a-half-minute routine they have been working on, full of different elements that are required to compete in the category.
“In preparation for the competition season, we rigorously and repeatedly run our routine to ensure consistency in our performance,” Medina said. “Alongside this, we condition and run weekly to improve our stamina and endurance.”
The routine is made up of multiple different components, such as a band chant, a sideline cheer, a situational cheer and the school fight song.
“We implement multiple stunts along with our props like megaphones, signs, poms and flags to enhance our scores,” Medina said.
Alongside drilling the routines, the team, captains and coaches have found other ways to work towards a stronger performance.
“We’ve all been told to work on what we each struggle with the most,” Martinez said. “Whether it’s our fight song, or maybe the wording to the cheer. We were also told that we should do some research on what other teams are known for, like maybe their sharpness or their level of spirit that they perform.”
With the long and tedious practices, the team has grown closer as they spend more and more time together. Martinez says her favorite part about being on the cheer team is the people.
“I think my main highlight of cheer is how all of us are diverse in what we do through the school,” Martinez said. “As some of us on the team are majors, like how I’m a choir major, or even just in student-led clubs, like Student Council, you’ll find us everywhere.”
