Delta High School has started a cheerleading program. They have never had a cheerleading team before. Shawn DeYoung is the new coach for the team. She does not work at Delta High School yet, but she is currently looking for an opening to be a teacher here. DeYoung is currently working at Montrose High School.
“I plan on coming to Delta this next year, or at least into Delta Country if nothing opens at DHS.” DeYoung arrives at the school at 4:30, for daily practice, and practice goes until 6.
Valeria Medina, a junior on the cheer team, said, “I enjoy the practices, and I especially like how they are not directly after school.”
She also said the practices are short, and mostly, they do cheers. When they practice, they do long stretches to get loose. A few girls lead their stretches, and they practice cheers and team bonding.
The cheer team is” big” considering our principal, Mrs. Johnson, only expected six girls to try out. The team currently consists of 26 cheerleaders, split into Junior and Varsity teams.
Young explained how she split the girls up: “Skill, motion movement, athletic ability, coachability, effort, and attitude.”
She also said the girls can move up to varsity or back down to junior varsity if needed. “There are 16 on Varsity and 13 on JV.” She did not cut anyone this year since it is a “building year.” DeYoung said she placed everyone on the team, giving them all a chance this year.
The deadline to join the team was November 4 DeYoung said she would consider more girls joining at different times, but she has to order uniforms.
The Delta Cheerleading team has lots of potential this year. But in the first game, they had an incident. Juliette Schnoes fell from her lift and broke her arm. Schnoes said, ‘I’m kind of glad this incident happened because there are injuries for people who don’t think cheer is a sport. Things do happen. And cheer is a real sport.’
