Gallery • 7 Photos

Aubrey Hall

Ryan Murdock (12) throws her Roundoff-Tuck in the team's weekly tumbling class. This class takes place every Tuesday at the Colorado Elite Gym in Colorado Springs.

“Our role is to promote teamwork and leadership in everything we do, in school and cheer,” says Ryan Murdock (12). “This past year, the team was really close because of our unconditional love for each other.”

The Manitou Springs Cheer Team had a successful season last school year. Following their win at the League Championship, the team spent the rest of the year working hard to succeed their overall goal: becoming state champions. When that dream became reality, the team was the strongest it had been all season.

This year, the team has the third new coach in the past three years. “I think Manitou is a team that goes through more obstacles each year. We start from the beginning every year. So I think that just shows our strength as a team,” Murdock says. Even though the cheerleaders have a lot of obstacles to get through, they are determined to succeed.

Aside from cheering at sports games, going to competitions and having practice nearly every day, the girls on the team also have to balance school, extracurriculars and a social life. “It’s definitely hard to balance school and cheer and competitions, and then work and band and choir on top of that,” says Devon Arabia (12), “But in all honesty, if I wasn’t doing everything, I wouldn’t be pushing myself hard enough. It makes me want to work even more.” The girls all agreed that eventually, cheer became their social life, because they made so many friends on the team.

When the cheerleaders were asked what they would say to their freshman selves, the answers were unanimous. “Work harder. Stay positive. Keep your grades up.” They also said that they had people tell them those exact things as freshmen, and they wished they had listened to them better than they did.

The team was announced on August 18th. This year, they are going to more competitions and cheering at more games than ever before. They are also practicing before school, sometimes as early as 5:45am, in order to be the best that they can be for the State Championship. “Cheerleading is what makes me happy, and i would give anything for it. Quitting my sophomore year is my biggest regret. I would stay on the team forever, if I could,” says Arabia.