Wrestling cheerleaders return to NYM sidelines

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

The New York Mills wrestling team gained some added enthusiasm and pep with the new wrestling cheer team headed up by Gina Long.

“I was a cheerleader in high school from the time I was in eighth grade to the time I graduated,” said Long. “Being a cheerleading coach was always on my bucket list of things to do.”

Long recently approached the school board with the request to start up the wrestling cheer team as her daughter and several other eighth grade girls had shown interest in cheerleading. With approval from the board, she moved forward with the idea.

“It really wasn’t my idea to do it, but my daughter, Reegan, said ‘there’s some of us who want to be cheerleaders, but there’s no coach,’” said Long. “I said I’ll give it a shot, if the school says yes, let’s roll with it. It was awesome to be approved and the girls have been doing an awesome job. There are four and they’re all eighth grade girls with no experience, their first year ever.”

Now in their fourth week of practice, the four cheerleaders have been working on cheers, stunts, and building their own confidence. Last week, they cheered at their first wrestling match at the Tuesday, Dec. 12 triangular in NY Mills.

“Because of their age and lack of experience, the school agreed to let us cheer at the four home meets and triangulars,” said Long. “So we’re actually just cheering at the four events that are at home, but the girls are really excited to focus on the physical challenges that can be involved in cheerleading.

“They really want to do some stunts and pyramids,” she continued. “They did a stunt off to the side on Tuesday night and they beamed with pride. They just really like to be challenged physically, so I really want to incorporate more stunting into their cheerleading program on top of cheering from the mats.”

Long was cheer captain in high school, so she knows the rigors and the challenges that come with cheerleading, but she also knows the multitude of benefits in personal growth that come along with it including heightened confidence levels, teamwork, and vocality.

“I’m looking forward to watching those girls,” said Long. “There’s a couple of them that are really shy and I have really seen them come out of their shell and build their confidence. They were really quiet and you can’t be a quiet cheerleader. So, I’ve already noticed them become very vocal and their confidence especially went through the roof after this first meet.

“They started out really quiet and by the end, I had to tell them to tone down their screams,” she laughed. “I’m excited to watch them build their confidence and their teamwork. If they are going to do these stunts, they require teamwork and unison and trust as well as just keeping up with the cheers and the beat.”

Another important part of cheerleading, along with any other sport, is being gracious with one another. Long mentioned that over the course of the meet, several of her cheerleaders made mistakes and that they were very gracious with each other, picking themselves up and starting again.

“They did a great job,” Long said. “A lot of that depends on their work together as a team to stay in unison as well as be gracious with each other.”

With many other cheer programs being cut due to a lack of participants, the school’s new program brings an opportunity for those who are interested in cheerleading. Long said that a cheerleader’s main role is to maintain positive attitudes in sportsmanship and overall positivity during meets.

“I think it’s important because cheerleaders maintain the attitude of the room,” said Long. “For example, on Tuesday night, that second team we wrestled, every one of our boys got beat and you could feel the disappointment and the letdown of the wrestlers themselves and the girls just really helped control that level of positivity and they kept attitudes up.

“They went out losing, but they went out with support,” she continued. “And I believe that’s their job to do. The girls’ biggest role is going to be maintaining those positive attitudes.”