Eighteen students at Augusta High just completed a year of working in the gymnasium trying to pick up the spirits of the Oriole faithful as cheerleaders. They understand they are student-athletes who usually get taken for granted because they aren’t in what is considered a sport.
But don’t think for one second that these girls don’t think of themselves as athletic. If you think about it, these girls sometimes do things more dangerous than a football player getting wrestled down on the gridiron.
“We work just as hard as everyone else to get where we’re at,” said Jessica Harrouff, one of two seniors on the 2007-08 Orioles cheerleading squad. “We get hurt like everyone else.
“I love cheering. It’s fun. We just have to make sure we hit all of our stunts and don’t fall, but that’s with all of us.”
The other senior of the cheerleading squad, Casey Clark, said she got into cheerleading after watching her older sister on the squad.
“I did the cheer corps when I was younger, and it was something I thought I’d want to do,” Clark said. “I really didn’t want to play basketball or softball.”
The other members of the Orioles cheerleading squad are Taylor Shryock, Megan Merrill, Megan Rinkenbaugh, Laura Clark, Jasmine Richmond, Tiffanie McDowell, Laykin Lair, Bailey Smith, Ashley Yoder, Chelsea Base, Brianna Helton, Lindsey Davis, Randi Johnson, Tanner Epperson, Amy Dowding and Nicole Schwemmer.
The cheerleaders are sponsored and coached by Jean Shetler and Teri Rinkenbaugh. The squad works during the spring and summer to get ready for the fall sports; then it splits into two with Shetler taking half of the team, including Harrouff, for basketball games, and Rinkenbaugh handling those cheerleaders who want to yell for the wrestling team. Cheerleaders decide at tryouts if they want to cheer for the basketball team or the wrestling team.
“We all practice together during football; then in basketball and wrestling, we have our own practices,” Harrouff said. “It’s harder because we can’t do as big of stuff as we do in football, but it makes it easier to get stuff done quicker.”
Despite being on different squads, Clark and Harrouff still talk to each other all the time about different routines, or what they think about things with the other team.
“We talk about the new stuff we learn in practice,” Clark said. “We try to help each other out if we have questions on anything.”
And since the teams aren’t together, Clark said the separation leads to a tighter-knit group of friends during the winter months.
“We all like to hang out together and we work together as a team,” Clark said about her time with the wrestling cheerleaders during the winter. “I like it when we’re split up because we get to know each other better and we get to spend more time together during wrestling than we do during football.”
The 2008-09 cheerleading Orioles cheerleading squad will be selected after spring break and everyone — including those who cheered during this school year — have to come and try out if they want to be on the squad.
Harrouff and Clark will be the ones who design the cheer each person trying out will have to know and do well in front of them, three judges, and both coaches in order to join the unit.
And since tryouts are in pairs, a key to making the team is to make sure you have a partner that is just as efficient in cheering and movement. If one person makes a mistake, it counts against both members of the duo. Harrouff and Clark understand that very well since they paired together in last year’s tryouts.
“It makes it easier on us,” Harrouff said. “In our chant, we do it three times: once together; then one person says it while the other does the motions; then we switch.”
The crowd response may not always be what they like to hear and both admitted there sometimes is a little bit of frustration, but that doesn’t take anything away from the overall experience.
“I know that we take the time to practice and how hard we practice on everything,” Clark said. “A lot of people do let us know if we did a good job or certain things that we do. We know people do enjoy us when we perform.”
