“It’s still scary sometimes.”
Gathered in the Jefferson High School cafeteria with her newfound teammates, senior Brooke Eveland works through new cheers and dances, prepared by her fellow cheerleaders. While many of them have been a part of the squad for several seasons, Eveland is among this season’s new recruits and is helping rebuild the cheering ranks.
Jefferson High’s cheer squad entered the fall 2022 season with only seven cheerleaders. With Eveland and several other additions, the squad has grown to include 15 girls; enough for a team expansion.
“We have a large team this year with 15 girls, so we are very excited to have a JV team again!” head cheer coach Liz Letexier said.
While the JV team will return in some fashion, it will require the cheerleaders to be extra flexible. In order to have a JV team, some cheerleaders will “swing” and cheer on both squads.
Letexier, assisted by former Jefferson High cheerleader Taylor Quackenbush, hopes to see the numbers continue to elevate, and if they do, it will help achieve another goal of hers: attending Cheer Fest for the first time in four years.
Cheer Fest is an annual competition hosted in Lewistown in March for school-based cheerleaders, dancers and mascots in the state.
“It’s fun! It’s something unique that the cheerleaders get to do,” Quackenbush said.
Letexier echoed the sentiment, adding that the teams there will have bigger squads than Jefferson High.
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