Here at Eastside Catholic, we have a very successful high school cheer program. Alongside it we have a junior cheer program, serving kids first through eighth grade. Most students who cheered with the junior program advanced to high school level, which can be a big adjustment both athletically and academically. I spoke with Lauren England, a freshman cheerleader who was involved in Jr. cheer, and is excited to tell us about this transition.
Lauren, who is 14 years old, has been cheering at Eastside Catholic for almost 9 years. She found that the immediate difference between the two programs was the skill level. She said high school practices progress through new skills much quicker, and she described it as a very sudden change. “Obviously the coaches support us through these changes, but all of a sudden summer started and it went from easy to not.”
She then began to talk about the differences in expectations. She didn’t attend Eastside Catholic for middle school, so she never felt like she was representing EC cheer. Now that she’s a high schooler and cheering for her school, she feels a pressure to represent herself in a way that reflects the values of the program. “People were never able to say ‘oh, that girl is a cheerleader’ but now they can.”
While the nature of cheer is the same at the junior and senior levels, the social dynamics are something every cheerleader must learn to navigate.
There were only two 8th grade cheerleaders last season, Lauren included. Both advanced to the high school level, and Lauren said most kids do advance. This year we only have one cheer group, our varsity team. This team spans all four grades, so students get to interact and socialize, unlike Jr. cheer where you stick to just your age group. She also added that because of the way cheer is viewed by others and the stereotypes around it, people are keener to be her friend. She said this was different than Jr. Cheer, where few people went to the games or knew that she was a cheerleader.
Academics don’t subside for anyone, and the transition between middle and high school is huge even without a sport on top of it.
We discussed the careful balance between school and athletics, Lauren saying “Balancing school and cheer is hard, because we’ve had a few 13–16-hour days these past few weeks.” She expanded on that, explaining going from school to hours of practice and from practice directly to games. She talked about struggling to find time for homework in her busy schedule and said she hasn’t figured out a balance just yet.
The Jr. And high school cheer programs are different and exciting. Laurens enthusiasm for her sport does a wonderful job portraying the transitions, or lack thereof, between the programs. In summary, the biggest transitions are academics and skill levels. To end our conversation, she said she loved both programs and is excited to finally be a part of High School cheer after all the years she’s watched it in the Jr. program.
