The students holding pom-poms on the sidelines of Canyons District prep sport competitions are a far cry from the cheerleaders of yesteryear. Gone are the days of cheerleading as a social club or an extracurricular activity to encourage school spirit. Indeed, times have changed. Cheer, to be sure, has entered a new era. As seen on such shows at Netflix’s “Cheer,” students on CSD’s prep competitive cheer squads hit the weights to build strength, flip like Olympic gymnasts, and boast dancing skills of the choreographed squads who back up pop divas in music videos. This week, we talk with the award-winning coach and three members of the CSD cheer squad that has not only won the first-ever state championships in competitive cheer — but has made quite a splash nationally for the team’s tumbling skills, performing ability, and mental toughness. Corner Canyon’s cheer squad, led by Coach Whitney Lunt, are not just Instagram stars with 66,000 followers, but an elite force that is advancing the artistry and athleticism of a growing sport.
00:00 Introduction to Modern Cheerleading
01:16 Meet the Corner Canyon Cheer Squad
01:50 The Evolution and Role of Cheerleading
03:01 Personal Stories and Challenges
07:38 Mental and Physical Strength in Cheer
14:27 Understanding Cheer Terminology and Roles
17:37 Competition Categories and Scoring
19:45 The Rewards and Challenges of Cheerleading
22:48 Conclusion and Best Wishes
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by
Canyons School District.
This is a show about what weteach, how we teach and why we
get up close and personal withsome of the people who make our
schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more.
We meet national experts too.
Learning is about makingconnections, so connect with us.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
The students holding pom-poms on the sidelines of
Canyons District prep sportcompetitions are a far cry from
the cheerleaders of yesteryear.
Gone are the days ofcheerleading as a social club or
an extracurricular to encourageschool spirit.
Yes, times have changed.
The students on competitivecheer squads hit the weights
like defensive linemen, have thestamina of wrestlers, flip,
(00:59):
leap and twist like Olympicgymnasts and boast the dancing
skills rivaling thechoreographed squads who back up
pop divas in music videos.
This much is sure.
Today's version of cheerrequires vast amounts of skills,
strength, performing abilityand mental toughness.
Here in Utah it's become asanctioned sport of the Utah
(01:19):
High School ActivitiesAssociation, and Canyons is home
to the team that has won thefirst two state UHSAA
championships.
And the Corner Canyon Chargershave their sights set on another
title.
I'm Jeff Haney and this week, onConnect Canyons, we're talking
competitive cheer, dispellingnotions, addressing the risks
(01:40):
and physical demands and gettingto the heart of what makes
cheer well cheer.
And today we're here withsix-time state champion,
three-time national champions,the Corner Canyon Cheer Squad.
We're here with the coach,whitney Lunt, and students,
seniors and captains of thisyear's squad, alicia Wong Hi,
(02:01):
alicia Hi and Reagan Alleman,hello.
And Ava Johnson Hi, alicia Hiand Reagan Alleman, hello.
And Ava Johnson Hi.
I'm so glad that you came totalk to me about your season and
I truly believe that cheercompetitive cheer is one of the
hardest sports for high schoolstudents today.
Now, the role of a cheerleaderhas changed throughout the year,
(02:24):
but, as you guys see it, whatis the main role of cheer at a
school today, whitney?
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Well, I think from a coaching perspective, if we even
look at when Corner Canyonopened 12 years ago, our main
purpose was just to support allof the teams and programs at the
school and we competed on theside, but nobody cared or took
it seriously.
All they cared about is if wewere at games.
So watching it change over theyears to now we are also a sport
(02:55):
and competing is part of ourrole has really upped the
athleticism of the sport and,like what you have to be able to
do to do it, cheering on thesidelines is the easy part of
our job.
The true athletic talent comesfrom the competition, so for
that to now be a part of it hasreally made cheerleading more
respected and athletic.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
And Alicia, what do you think?
What is the main role of cheerat a school?
Speaker 5 (03:17):
I think definitely the main role is to invite
school spirit, but also not justcoming from us, but also to
bring crowd involvement and letthem also be a part of that,
just to help them have that highschool experience, and also to
encourage and support theathletes in what they do.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
So Reagan, tell me this what made you want to be in
cheer?
Because you've been on thesquad for three, four years,
four years, yeah.
So what made you want to be incheer?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Growing up, I was the kid who did pretty much every
sport.
I did soccer, I did tumbling, Idid dance, I tried volleyball
and basketball and I did prettymuch all of it.
And when I got into I think itwas middle school, I started to
realize, like, how much I lovetumbling and I was like, wait, I
really want to kind ofincorporate this into something
you know.
And when I found out about theprogram that corn and candy
(04:06):
cheer had and the excellencethat they really showed and
displayed, I knew that that'ssomething that I wanted to do.
And so from that point on, whenI was I think I was 12, I
worked really hard and it was.
It was hard.
I had to overcome a lot ofinjuries.
I broke my back, I had skincancer, but there was nothing
that was going to stop me.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Okay, stop for a second.
You broke your back.
Yeah, tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So, like I said, I was kind of involved in a lot of
sports and at this time when Ifirst started cheer, I was still
running track, I was stilldoing competitive soccer, I was
doing competitive cheer and overtime I kind of just started to
develop some back issues and Ididn't really I kind of just
pushed it aside at first becauseI was like, oh, whatever, like
all cheerleaders have backproblems, you know, especially
at the level that I was at,because I'd been tumbling my
(04:47):
whole life, I was doing prettyadvanced tumbling passes, I I
kind of just push it aside.
But it got to a point where itgot so bad that I actually
wasn't even able to get out ofbed.
And so I eventually I went tothe doctor and I had an x-ray
and turns out that I had brokenmy back.
And it was really discouragingbecause I had a lot of doctors
tell me that I should getsurgery and I should never cheer
again.
(05:07):
And at that point it wascrushing.
It was horrible because at thatpoint that's when I decided that
cheer was the thing that Iloved the most and I didn't want
to let something like that getin my way, especially when I had
these big dreams and goals ofcheering in high school, at
Corner Canyon, and maybe evenfurther on into my collegiate
career.
But like so I didn't really wantthat to kind of set me back and
(05:30):
so I did everything I could.
I I took core strengtheningclasses to try to counter that.
I was in a back brace formonths all the time.
I actually still sleep in itthis to this day, for six years
now, but it's, you know, it'sbeen worth it, because I know,
like this is kind of goes in allareas of life, especially with
cheerleading.
Like once you have a goal andyou're committed to it whether
(05:50):
it be winning state, which wehave tomorrow, or nationals in a
few weeks, or even coming backfrom an injury or getting good
grades or anything once you havea goal and you're determined to
, you're determined to determineto achieve that like there's
nothing that's going to stop you.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Now, ava, to kind of dovetail off of that answer that
Reagan just gave how many danceclasses and tumbling classes do
you think somebody needs totake to be on a competitive
cheer squad like Corner Canyon?
I mean, you truly do have atradition of excellence, and so
(06:26):
you have to have kind of abaseline of skills just to be
considered, and then, even ifyou have just the minimum amount
of skills to be considered, youhave to raise that level for
your competitions.
So what did you do to prepare?
Did you take dance?
Did you take tumbling?
What did you do in order to beprepared to try out for, and
(06:49):
become a part of, cornerCanyon's cheer squad?
Speaker 6 (06:52):
So growing up I did gymnastics for 13 years before I
joined the cheer team.
I did it for a long time notknowing that I wanted to join
cheer.
And then when I got to highschool, like I always saw the
program, like I went to mybrother's football games, saw
them on the sidelines, I alwaysthought it looked fun, but I
never really saw myself doing it.
And then it came to the pointwhere I started to learn more
(07:12):
about their program and Idecided to like go to the tryout
meeting, look into trying out,and I found out just how much
that you had to have to make theteam.
And so I mean I've, I've alwaystumbled for a long time.
So going into tumbling fromgymnastics to cheer, I mean
you're going from a spring floorto a dead floor, which is very
different for tumbling becauseit takes away a lot of your
(07:35):
power that you have, that youhave to build yourself.
And so going into tryouts, Imean I really had to work to get
my tumbling on the dead matbecause it was very different.
I mean I really had to work toget my tumbling on the dead mat
because it was very different.
And so I think that if joininga program like corner cane is
something that someone wantslike.
It does take lots of time andpreparation to get to where you
want to be.
I mean, we're still.
(07:59):
We tumble, we go to classesevery single week, we tumble on
the daily just for our routineand it does take a lot of
preparation, but it definitelyis worth it and it is just a
process that you have to gothrough.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
So I hear from a lot of you that it's been a positive
experience, but I'm sure thatthere are misconceptions about
being a cheerleader.
Even the word cheerleader issomething that has changed in
recent years.
This is about competitive cheer, not necessarily being a cheer
leader.
So when you tell us what is thebiggest misconception about
(08:31):
being in cheer?
Everybody laughs, we knowthey've talked about this in the
past.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
So interesting because even I'm a teacher at
the high school and every yearat some point the kids ask me
about cheer or like, how do theyjudge cheer, how do you even
win cheer?
Because people think all you doin cheerleading is stand on the
sidelines and wave yourpom-poms around and like, look
cute in your cheer uniform andthen I'll show my students.
(08:57):
I actually showed kids today avideo because kid asked about it
and then their brains explodebecause they had no idea what it
is that we actually do.
So I think that the biggestmisconception is just that
they're not super athletic.
You don't really need a lot oftalent to do it.
It's something you can justkind of walk into and do on the
side, when in reality every kidwe've had on our team has had
(09:19):
years of training before comingto us to even make them eligible
to be a part of the team.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
And Alicia, what do you think?
What is the biggestmisconception among your peers
about being in chair?
Speaker 5 (09:30):
So what I've heard from a lot of people, including
members from my own family, isthat they think cheerleading is
just a bunch of frou-frou andfluff, like they have no idea
what we do outside of thesidelines and cheering at games.
And really even the footballboys have mentioned in our
summer practices that ourpractices are very hard and to
(09:50):
be able to maintain the and togain the physical strength just
to do a routine, it takes somuch work and we do things
including running the mile andweightlifting for an hour and
running bleachers and a lot ofconditioning just to stay in
shape throughout the season.
And I have done other sports,including soccer and basketball
(10:11):
and other things, but cheer isjust a whole other thing and it
takes so much physical strengthjust to do one routine of two
and a half minutes, and that twoand a half minutes is very,
very difficult.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Now, Reagan, you talked about physical strength.
What about mental strength?
Because you do incrediblychallenging stunts and one
little bobble and it all comesdown.
How does the team think aboutstrengthening that mental
capacity that, yes, we're goingto nail this.
(10:44):
Yes, we're going to win.
Yes, we're taking a risk herebecause it's more challenging
than anything we've done in thepast, but we can do it?
How have the coaches, how haveyour teammates worked together
on strengthening that mentalidea that we're going to do this
?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
For me.
Mental strength, andcheerleading especially, is an
especially important topic to mebecause obviously it's not easy
.
It's not easy physically, asAlicia was saying, but it's
especially not easy mentally.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
And even in past years, like last year, I
struggled mentally with maybe mytumbling or a few stunts, and
it's really hard and it's reallydraining, especially when you
Do you ever get in your headlike you miss it once, and then
you miss it twice, and then youmiss it three times and then all
of a sudden, you just can't doit?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, in fact.
In fact, that's actually whathappened to me in my tumbling
last season.
There was nothing really thathappened, like I never fell on
my tumbling passes, but they'rejust kind of.
It came to a point where I gotin my head so much that it just
got to a point where I couldn'tdo it and I like felt like I
couldn't do it and it was reallystressful and it was a stressed
out and I would have.
(11:50):
I'm lucky to be part of such agreat program with coaches and
teammates that would alwaysencourage me and be like look
like, you've got this, you'vegot beautiful tumbling like we
know you can do this.
The team trusts you, the coachestrust you.
But it was still very hard on meand it was.
It was a struggle but eventually, as I came to focus on my love
for cheer and the confidencethat it gave me when I was able
(12:12):
to execute my skills, as I wasable to shift my focus from the
stress that I felt to the, tothe ability and the like, the
confidence that I had and theenjoyment that I found while
doing it, while doing mytumbling passes and doing my
stunts, that's when I became amuch stronger base.
That's when my tumbling allcame back and as much as it, as
much as it sucked at the time, Iactually think it's something
(12:35):
that's really helped me,especially this season.
We've had a few girls that havealso struggled with the similar
things as me, like they'vestruggled with their tumbling,
or maybe they've struggled withtheir stunts and struggled with
maybe like they don't feelpositive or like they just don't
feel like they're enjoyingthemselves at practice.
And I feel like, because I'vepersonally overcome those
challenges with mental strengthand cheer, I've been able to use
that and use my experience tobe able to be there for my
(12:58):
teammates.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So Whitney.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Well, and I think and they would probably laugh, but
I would say we do some sort ofmental discussion or training
every single day at practice andsometimes they turn into hour
long talks which at the time canfeel like you know you're
wasting practice time when youcould be doing skills.
But they're going to have theskills, they're trained to do
(13:22):
the skills, but if they can'tmentally check in, it doesn't
matter how well they're trained.
And so I would say we do sometype of mental training pretty
much every single practice, oreven talking about okay, this is
how we approach things, this ishow we need to think about
things in the moment.
So we do it a lot, I think also, like we do mental training
(13:42):
every day.
Speaker 6 (13:43):
We do those exercises , but also practices themselves
are mental training.
I feel like because we do somany routines, we run through so
many sections and with thatobviously you're not going to
hit every single time and withthat it can be very mentally
tough to pick yourself back upover and over again, to keep
going.
And so I think being able tobuild that mental toughness and
(14:04):
we have really built that as ateam this year to pick yourself
right back up and know that it'sall part of the process and you
just have to keep pickingyourself up, even during those
hard times.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Another tradition that we have as a team that I
really like is we always havethe upperclassmen read a certain
mental training book every year.
Usually we read it in thesummer, kind of before a camp or
something, and all theupperclassmen kind of like take
notes from the books that weread.
And obviously, as a senior,I've read the book twice.
It's been a different book eachtime.
But something that I've reallygained from that is confidence.
(14:36):
You know, because incheerleading, like you were
saying, it's mentally hard, it'sphysically hard, but once you
have that confidence, you showthat confidence, you're really
unstoppable.
There's going to be your upsand downs in practices and in
competitions and even games, butif you can really show the
confidence that you have andyou've been able to build
through all your years oftraining and all the practices
that you've had, then that'swhen you reach the top.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So you said something .
Well, one of you said somethingthat I thought was fascinating.
I think it was you, reagan.
You said confidence in being abase.
That's jargon and for theuninitiated, they may not
necessarily know what the wordsbase or flyer would be.
So, whitney, take a second andtalk about some of that jargon.
(15:21):
What is a base, what is a flyer, what makes up your team and
how they contribute to theroutine?
Speaker 4 (15:29):
So, realistically, we kind of have five roles of
people on the team you have.
They're called main bases andside bases, but they're on
either side of the stunt.
They are the people who holdthe girls in the air.
There's also a back spot behind.
So there's three of them alltogether who hold the flyer or
sometimes they call them topgirls up into the air.
(15:50):
So you have those fourpositions, and then we also have
three other people on the matwho are tumblers.
So they may not necessarilystunt, but while the stunts are
going on they're doing thoseextra tumbling passes and things
to give us kind of that extrapizzazz.
And so every person on our teamfills one of those five roles.
They either a main base, a sidebase, a back back spot, a flyer
(16:12):
or a tumbler.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
So you tumbled for 13 years?
Okay, so for those who will bewatching, describe your tumbling
pass.
I imagine it's like a round offto a back handspring, to a back
tuck.
Tell us what you do.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
So my tumbling in this routine, I do a round off
back handspring full and thentell us what you do.
So my tumbling in this routine,I do a round-off back
handspring full.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
And then tell us what that is For somebody who
doesn't know gymnastics.
What's a full?
Speaker 6 (16:39):
A full is you're doing basically a backflip with
a twist and landing back on yourfeet and then the round-off
back handspring before is you'rerunning and you put your hands
on the ground, flip your legsover and then you do a flip with
your hands on the ground goinginto the flip without your hands
in a twist, and I imagine foryou right now that's not
(17:01):
incredibly challenging.
It can be challenging when itcomes to routine.
When you're in thattwo-and-a-half-minute routine of
using your endurance andstrength the entire time, the
tumbling pass itself has becomeeasier because I've done it for
so many years.
But when you put it in aroutine it definitely does
change the difficulty of that.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Is that a difficult pass.
Do most squads put that intheir routine?
Speaker 6 (17:24):
Not many squads have.
Well, some do, but we do have alot of foals on our team.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
So and I say this with all the humbleness that I
can muster, there is nobody inthe United States of America
that tumbles like Corner Canyon.
Cheer.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
So the humbleness of a six-time state champion,
three-time national championcoach, yes, I love that.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
We have 20.
At nationals.
We will have 23 people on mat.
14 of them do standinghandsprings into foals.
15 out of the 23 do runninghandsprings into foals.
Plus they all throw standingtucks.
And we have specialty passesthroughout when we go to
Nationals.
Even at the NationalChampionships, nobody tumbles
like Corner Canyon Cheer.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
The state competition is just hours away when we
record this.
Now, for those who are new tocompetitive cheer, and as you
explained that, you showed someof the video to some of your
classes and they were surprisedat what you all did for your
competitions explain thecategories in which you compete.
(18:29):
So, if I understand, there'sthere's a show category, right?
And is there a dance codedcategory as well?
Tell us about the categories.
There's three in all and you'regoing to have to compete in
those three, so explain what itis that you have to do in all
three of those categories.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
So in Utah the way that you win a state
championship is you compete ashow or traditional routine,
which is the two minute and 30seconds.
That you win a statechampionship is you compete a
show or traditional routine,which is the two minute and 30
seconds that you jump, you dance, you stunt, you tumble, you
literally do everything in thattwo minutes and 30 seconds.
That is 70% of your total scoreat the state championships.
Then they have game daycategories which are supposed to
(19:07):
simulate more what you would doon the sidelines at a game.
For that you have to do a gameday cheer, which is about 45
seconds to a minute, which isgoing to be 15%, and then you
have to do a band dance, whichwill be another 15%.
So overall your game daysections are worth 30% of your
final score.
(19:27):
Show is 70, and they add thattogether to determine who will
win the state championship so,alicia, how do you get points?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
how do you lose points?
So is it if you fall during atumbling pass or fall from a
stunt?
Speaker 5 (19:43):
so basically how it works is all teams start with
like a raw score or like yourpotential score, based on how
difficult your initial routineis, but it's scored out of 100
and you don't really gain points.
You only lose points from that100 based on your execution and
the different sections, whichincludes like tumbling, stunting
(20:03):
, your dance and everything, andeverything is scored and not
everything is like weightedevenly in the score.
The cheer is worth a lot more,so it's so vital you do very
well in that.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So, Ava, what's the hardest thing about being in
cheer?
Speaker 6 (20:20):
I think the hardest thing about being in cheer is
the fact that we are doing ityear-round.
I mean we have so many differentparts of the season that they
each have their challenges.
I mean spring practices, whenyou first try out, you're with a
new team, you're just gettingback into the swing of things
after you had a competitionseason and that's always hard
(20:41):
with teaching the new girls thejust the ways of corner canyon.
And then you have summerpractices, which we are outside
every day at 6 am doing fourhours of practice every day,
which can get really hard when Imean your friends are not,
they're sleeping in and you'regetting up at 6 am to work your
butt off.
But with that I mean, comes alot of reward.
I mean we continue thatthroughout the summer and then
(21:03):
we have the fall where we'reworking half times, we're
working our comp routines andwe're cheering all the games and
it can get really busy.
But I think that it is hard butit comes with a lot of reward
and it is really fun because Imean you're with the people you
love, you're with your bestfriends, and so the hardest part
really can be just I I mean theamount of time you put into it,
(21:24):
but it really is just the bestthing, Regan.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
what's the best thing about being a cheer?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Ava kind of touched on this a little bit but I
really think that the best thingabout being a cheer is all the
friendships that you make.
You know, because there's somegirls on the team where maybe
they're in different grades ormaybe they're in different
friend groups that you wouldn'treally hang out with outside of
cheer.
But when you get to cheer andyou spend all your time with
them, you really create such astrong bond with 36 different
(21:50):
girls and they become.
They become the people thattruly understand, because a lot
of times even your other friendsor, like I don't know, maybe
your family members won't reallyunderstand what cheer is like
and the difficulty of it.
But at the end of the day it'sthe 36 girls that you have by
your side that you know willalways be with you and you have
their back and they have yourback and it truly is a
(22:12):
relationship like no other.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
And coach.
What's the best thing aboutdedicating your life to a team
for an entire year Not just aseason, but an entire year on
the sidelines and in competition?
Speaker 4 (22:25):
You can't ask me questions like this because I
will cry.
Everybody knows this.
You can't ask me thesequestions.
I think the most rewardingthing is seeing the growth in
them, genuinely seeing that theyare capable of so much more
than they thought.
It's our job to push them pasttheir limits and at times they
(22:47):
hate us I know every single oneof them at one time or another
has hated me but when you seethem break through those walls
and accomplish something thatthey've never thought they could
do before, that to me, is thebest part.
And seeing a kid going frombeing a freshman to a senior and
the change in them, not only asathletes but as human beings,
and the strength and resiliencethat they've gained, that's the
(23:08):
journey for me that matters,whether we win or lose, because
some of my favorite years havebeen years that we haven't won,
and it's just them becominggreat humans and athletes.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
So tomorrow night is the state competition.
Corner Canyon Chargers will becompeting.
They'll be on the floor.
Tomorrow night is the statecompetition.
Corner Canyon Chargers will becompeting.
They'll be on the floortomorrow night.
It's at Utah Valley University.
We wish you all the luck in theworld.
Hashtag Go Chargers.
Congratulations on a fantasticseason so far.
We are cheering for you.
We are your biggestcheerleaders.
(23:39):
Thank you so much for listening.
This is Jeff Haney, ConnectCanyon.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect
Canyons.
Connect with us on Twitter,facebook or Instagram at Canyons
District or on our website,canyonsdistrictorg.
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by
Canyons School District.
This is a show about what weteach, how we teach and why we
get up close and personal withsome of the people who make our
schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more.
We meet national experts too.
Learning is about makingconnections, so connect with us.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
The students holding pom-poms on the sidelines of
Canyons District prep sportcompetitions are a far cry from
the cheerleaders of yesteryear.
Gone are the days ofcheerleading as a social club or
an extracurricular to encourageschool spirit.
Yes, times have changed.
The students on competitivecheer squads hit the weights
like defensive linemen, have thestamina of wrestlers, flip,
(00:59):
leap and twist like Olympicgymnasts and boast the dancing
skills rivaling thechoreographed squads who back up
pop divas in music videos.
This much is sure.
Today's version of cheerrequires vast amounts of skills,
strength, performing abilityand mental toughness.
Here in Utah it's become asanctioned sport of the Utah
(01:19):
High School ActivitiesAssociation, and Canyons is home
to the team that has won thefirst two state UHSAA
championships.
And the Corner Canyon Chargershave their sights set on another
title.
I'm Jeff Haney and this week, onConnect Canyons, we're talking
competitive cheer, dispellingnotions, addressing the risks
(01:40):
and physical demands and gettingto the heart of what makes
cheer well cheer.
And today we're here withsix-time state champion,
three-time national champions,the Corner Canyon Cheer Squad.
We're here with the coach,whitney Lunt, and students,
seniors and captains of thisyear's squad, alicia Wong Hi,
(02:01):
alicia Hi and Reagan Alleman,hello.
And Ava Johnson Hi, alicia Hiand Reagan Alleman, hello.
And Ava Johnson Hi.
I'm so glad that you came totalk to me about your season and
I truly believe that cheercompetitive cheer is one of the
hardest sports for high schoolstudents today.
Now, the role of a cheerleaderhas changed throughout the year,
(02:24):
but, as you guys see it, whatis the main role of cheer at a
school today, whitney?
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Well, I think from a coaching perspective, if we even
look at when Corner Canyonopened 12 years ago, our main
purpose was just to support allof the teams and programs at the
school and we competed on theside, but nobody cared or took
it seriously.
All they cared about is if wewere at games.
So watching it change over theyears to now we are also a sport
(02:55):
and competing is part of ourrole has really upped the
athleticism of the sport and,like what you have to be able to
do to do it, cheering on thesidelines is the easy part of
our job.
The true athletic talent comesfrom the competition, so for
that to now be a part of it hasreally made cheerleading more
respected and athletic.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
And Alicia, what do you think?
What is the main role of cheerat a school?
Speaker 5 (03:17):
I think definitely the main role is to invite
school spirit, but also not justcoming from us, but also to
bring crowd involvement and letthem also be a part of that,
just to help them have that highschool experience, and also to
encourage and support theathletes in what they do.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
So Reagan, tell me this what made you want to be in
cheer?
Because you've been on thesquad for three, four years,
four years, yeah.
So what made you want to be incheer?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Growing up, I was the kid who did pretty much every
sport.
I did soccer, I did tumbling, Idid dance, I tried volleyball
and basketball and I did prettymuch all of it.
And when I got into I think itwas middle school, I started to
realize, like, how much I lovetumbling and I was like, wait, I
really want to kind ofincorporate this into something
you know.
And when I found out about theprogram that corn and candy
(04:06):
cheer had and the excellencethat they really showed and
displayed, I knew that that'ssomething that I wanted to do.
And so from that point on, whenI was I think I was 12, I
worked really hard and it was.
It was hard.
I had to overcome a lot ofinjuries.
I broke my back, I had skincancer, but there was nothing
that was going to stop me.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Okay, stop for a second.
You broke your back.
Yeah, tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So, like I said, I was kind of involved in a lot of
sports and at this time when Ifirst started cheer, I was still
running track, I was stilldoing competitive soccer, I was
doing competitive cheer and overtime I kind of just started to
develop some back issues and Ididn't really I kind of just
pushed it aside at first becauseI was like, oh, whatever, like
all cheerleaders have backproblems, you know, especially
at the level that I was at,because I'd been tumbling my
(04:47):
whole life, I was doing prettyadvanced tumbling passes, I I
kind of just push it aside.
But it got to a point where itgot so bad that I actually
wasn't even able to get out ofbed.
And so I eventually I went tothe doctor and I had an x-ray
and turns out that I had brokenmy back.
And it was really discouragingbecause I had a lot of doctors
tell me that I should getsurgery and I should never cheer
again.
(05:07):
And at that point it wascrushing.
It was horrible because at thatpoint that's when I decided that
cheer was the thing that Iloved the most and I didn't want
to let something like that getin my way, especially when I had
these big dreams and goals ofcheering in high school, at
Corner Canyon, and maybe evenfurther on into my collegiate
career.
But like so I didn't really wantthat to kind of set me back and
(05:30):
so I did everything I could.
I I took core strengtheningclasses to try to counter that.
I was in a back brace formonths all the time.
I actually still sleep in itthis to this day, for six years
now, but it's, you know, it'sbeen worth it, because I know,
like this is kind of goes in allareas of life, especially with
cheerleading.
Like once you have a goal andyou're committed to it whether
(05:50):
it be winning state, which wehave tomorrow, or nationals in a
few weeks, or even coming backfrom an injury or getting good
grades or anything once you havea goal and you're determined to
, you're determined to determineto achieve that like there's
nothing that's going to stop you.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Now, ava, to kind of dovetail off of that answer that
Reagan just gave how many danceclasses and tumbling classes do
you think somebody needs totake to be on a competitive
cheer squad like Corner Canyon?
I mean, you truly do have atradition of excellence, and so
(06:26):
you have to have kind of abaseline of skills just to be
considered, and then, even ifyou have just the minimum amount
of skills to be considered, youhave to raise that level for
your competitions.
So what did you do to prepare?
Did you take dance?
Did you take tumbling?
What did you do in order to beprepared to try out for, and
(06:49):
become a part of, cornerCanyon's cheer squad?
Speaker 6 (06:52):
So growing up I did gymnastics for 13 years before I
joined the cheer team.
I did it for a long time notknowing that I wanted to join
cheer.
And then when I got to highschool, like I always saw the
program, like I went to mybrother's football games, saw
them on the sidelines, I alwaysthought it looked fun, but I
never really saw myself doing it.
And then it came to the pointwhere I started to learn more
(07:12):
about their program and Idecided to like go to the tryout
meeting, look into trying out,and I found out just how much
that you had to have to make theteam.
And so I mean I've, I've alwaystumbled for a long time.
So going into tumbling fromgymnastics to cheer, I mean
you're going from a spring floorto a dead floor, which is very
different for tumbling becauseit takes away a lot of your
(07:35):
power that you have, that youhave to build yourself.
And so going into tryouts, Imean I really had to work to get
my tumbling on the dead matbecause it was very different.
I mean I really had to work toget my tumbling on the dead mat
because it was very different.
And so I think that if joininga program like corner cane is
something that someone wantslike.
It does take lots of time andpreparation to get to where you
want to be.
I mean, we're still.
(07:59):
We tumble, we go to classesevery single week, we tumble on
the daily just for our routineand it does take a lot of
preparation, but it definitelyis worth it and it is just a
process that you have to gothrough.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
So I hear from a lot of you that it's been a positive
experience, but I'm sure thatthere are misconceptions about
being a cheerleader.
Even the word cheerleader issomething that has changed in
recent years.
This is about competitive cheer, not necessarily being a cheer
leader.
So when you tell us what is thebiggest misconception about
(08:31):
being in cheer?
Everybody laughs, we knowthey've talked about this in the
past.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
So interesting because even I'm a teacher at
the high school and every yearat some point the kids ask me
about cheer or like, how do theyjudge cheer, how do you even
win cheer?
Because people think all you doin cheerleading is stand on the
sidelines and wave yourpom-poms around and like, look
cute in your cheer uniform andthen I'll show my students.
(08:57):
I actually showed kids today avideo because kid asked about it
and then their brains explodebecause they had no idea what it
is that we actually do.
So I think that the biggestmisconception is just that
they're not super athletic.
You don't really need a lot oftalent to do it.
It's something you can justkind of walk into and do on the
side, when in reality every kidwe've had on our team has had
(09:19):
years of training before comingto us to even make them eligible
to be a part of the team.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
And Alicia, what do you think?
What is the biggestmisconception among your peers
about being in chair?
Speaker 5 (09:30):
So what I've heard from a lot of people, including
members from my own family, isthat they think cheerleading is
just a bunch of frou-frou andfluff, like they have no idea
what we do outside of thesidelines and cheering at games.
And really even the footballboys have mentioned in our
summer practices that ourpractices are very hard and to
(09:50):
be able to maintain the and togain the physical strength just
to do a routine, it takes somuch work and we do things
including running the mile andweightlifting for an hour and
running bleachers and a lot ofconditioning just to stay in
shape throughout the season.
And I have done other sports,including soccer and basketball
(10:11):
and other things, but cheer isjust a whole other thing and it
takes so much physical strengthjust to do one routine of two
and a half minutes, and that twoand a half minutes is very,
very difficult.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Now, Reagan, you talked about physical strength.
What about mental strength?
Because you do incrediblychallenging stunts and one
little bobble and it all comesdown.
How does the team think aboutstrengthening that mental
capacity that, yes, we're goingto nail this.
(10:44):
Yes, we're going to win.
Yes, we're taking a risk herebecause it's more challenging
than anything we've done in thepast, but we can do it?
How have the coaches, how haveyour teammates worked together
on strengthening that mentalidea that we're going to do this
?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
For me.
Mental strength, andcheerleading especially, is an
especially important topic to mebecause obviously it's not easy
.
It's not easy physically, asAlicia was saying, but it's
especially not easy mentally.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
And even in past years, like last year, I
struggled mentally with maybe mytumbling or a few stunts, and
it's really hard and it's reallydraining, especially when you
Do you ever get in your headlike you miss it once, and then
you miss it twice, and then youmiss it three times and then all
of a sudden, you just can't doit?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, in fact.
In fact, that's actually whathappened to me in my tumbling
last season.
There was nothing really thathappened, like I never fell on
my tumbling passes, but they'rejust kind of.
It came to a point where I gotin my head so much that it just
got to a point where I couldn'tdo it and I like felt like I
couldn't do it and it was reallystressful and it was a stressed
out and I would have.
(11:50):
I'm lucky to be part of such agreat program with coaches and
teammates that would alwaysencourage me and be like look
like, you've got this, you'vegot beautiful tumbling like we
know you can do this.
The team trusts you, the coachestrust you.
But it was still very hard on meand it was.
It was a struggle but eventually, as I came to focus on my love
for cheer and the confidencethat it gave me when I was able
(12:12):
to execute my skills, as I wasable to shift my focus from the
stress that I felt to the, tothe ability and the like, the
confidence that I had and theenjoyment that I found while
doing it, while doing mytumbling passes and doing my
stunts, that's when I became amuch stronger base.
That's when my tumbling allcame back and as much as it, as
much as it sucked at the time, Iactually think it's something
(12:35):
that's really helped me,especially this season.
We've had a few girls that havealso struggled with the similar
things as me, like they'vestruggled with their tumbling,
or maybe they've struggled withtheir stunts and struggled with
maybe like they don't feelpositive or like they just don't
feel like they're enjoyingthemselves at practice.
And I feel like, because I'vepersonally overcome those
challenges with mental strengthand cheer, I've been able to use
that and use my experience tobe able to be there for my
(12:58):
teammates.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So Whitney.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Well, and I think and they would probably laugh, but
I would say we do some sort ofmental discussion or training
every single day at practice andsometimes they turn into hour
long talks which at the time canfeel like you know you're
wasting practice time when youcould be doing skills.
But they're going to have theskills, they're trained to do
(13:22):
the skills, but if they can'tmentally check in, it doesn't
matter how well they're trained.
And so I would say we do sometype of mental training pretty
much every single practice, oreven talking about okay, this is
how we approach things, this ishow we need to think about
things in the moment.
So we do it a lot, I think also, like we do mental training
(13:42):
every day.
Speaker 6 (13:43):
We do those exercises , but also practices themselves
are mental training.
I feel like because we do somany routines, we run through so
many sections and with thatobviously you're not going to
hit every single time and withthat it can be very mentally
tough to pick yourself back upover and over again, to keep
going.
And so I think being able tobuild that mental toughness and
(14:04):
we have really built that as ateam this year to pick yourself
right back up and know that it'sall part of the process and you
just have to keep pickingyourself up, even during those
hard times.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Another tradition that we have as a team that I
really like is we always havethe upperclassmen read a certain
mental training book every year.
Usually we read it in thesummer, kind of before a camp or
something, and all theupperclassmen kind of like take
notes from the books that weread.
And obviously, as a senior,I've read the book twice.
It's been a different book eachtime.
But something that I've reallygained from that is confidence.
(14:36):
You know, because incheerleading, like you were
saying, it's mentally hard, it'sphysically hard, but once you
have that confidence, you showthat confidence, you're really
unstoppable.
There's going to be your upsand downs in practices and in
competitions and even games, butif you can really show the
confidence that you have andyou've been able to build
through all your years oftraining and all the practices
that you've had, then that'swhen you reach the top.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So you said something .
Well, one of you said somethingthat I thought was fascinating.
I think it was you, reagan.
You said confidence in being abase.
That's jargon and for theuninitiated, they may not
necessarily know what the wordsbase or flyer would be.
So, whitney, take a second andtalk about some of that jargon.
(15:21):
What is a base, what is a flyer, what makes up your team and
how they contribute to theroutine?
Speaker 4 (15:29):
So, realistically, we kind of have five roles of
people on the team you have.
They're called main bases andside bases, but they're on
either side of the stunt.
They are the people who holdthe girls in the air.
There's also a back spot behind.
So there's three of them alltogether who hold the flyer or
sometimes they call them topgirls up into the air.
(15:50):
So you have those fourpositions, and then we also have
three other people on the matwho are tumblers.
So they may not necessarilystunt, but while the stunts are
going on they're doing thoseextra tumbling passes and things
to give us kind of that extrapizzazz.
And so every person on our teamfills one of those five roles.
They either a main base, a sidebase, a back back spot, a flyer
(16:12):
or a tumbler.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
So you tumbled for 13 years?
Okay, so for those who will bewatching, describe your tumbling
pass.
I imagine it's like a round offto a back handspring, to a back
tuck.
Tell us what you do.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
So my tumbling in this routine, I do a round off
back handspring full and thentell us what you do.
So my tumbling in this routine,I do a round-off back
handspring full.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
And then tell us what that is For somebody who
doesn't know gymnastics.
What's a full?
Speaker 6 (16:39):
A full is you're doing basically a backflip with
a twist and landing back on yourfeet and then the round-off
back handspring before is you'rerunning and you put your hands
on the ground, flip your legsover and then you do a flip with
your hands on the ground goinginto the flip without your hands
in a twist, and I imagine foryou right now that's not
(17:01):
incredibly challenging.
It can be challenging when itcomes to routine.
When you're in thattwo-and-a-half-minute routine of
using your endurance andstrength the entire time, the
tumbling pass itself has becomeeasier because I've done it for
so many years.
But when you put it in aroutine it definitely does
change the difficulty of that.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Is that a difficult pass.
Do most squads put that intheir routine?
Speaker 6 (17:24):
Not many squads have.
Well, some do, but we do have alot of foals on our team.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
So and I say this with all the humbleness that I
can muster, there is nobody inthe United States of America
that tumbles like Corner Canyon.
Cheer.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
So the humbleness of a six-time state champion,
three-time national championcoach, yes, I love that.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
We have 20.
At nationals.
We will have 23 people on mat.
14 of them do standinghandsprings into foals.
15 out of the 23 do runninghandsprings into foals.
Plus they all throw standingtucks.
And we have specialty passesthroughout when we go to
Nationals.
Even at the NationalChampionships, nobody tumbles
like Corner Canyon Cheer.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
The state competition is just hours away when we
record this.
Now, for those who are new tocompetitive cheer, and as you
explained that, you showed someof the video to some of your
classes and they were surprisedat what you all did for your
competitions explain thecategories in which you compete.
(18:29):
So, if I understand, there'sthere's a show category, right?
And is there a dance codedcategory as well?
Tell us about the categories.
There's three in all and you'regoing to have to compete in
those three, so explain what itis that you have to do in all
three of those categories.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
So in Utah the way that you win a state
championship is you compete ashow or traditional routine,
which is the two minute and 30seconds.
That you win a statechampionship is you compete a
show or traditional routine,which is the two minute and 30
seconds that you jump, you dance, you stunt, you tumble, you
literally do everything in thattwo minutes and 30 seconds.
That is 70% of your total scoreat the state championships.
Then they have game daycategories which are supposed to
(19:07):
simulate more what you would doon the sidelines at a game.
For that you have to do a gameday cheer, which is about 45
seconds to a minute, which isgoing to be 15%, and then you
have to do a band dance, whichwill be another 15%.
So overall your game daysections are worth 30% of your
final score.
(19:27):
Show is 70, and they add thattogether to determine who will
win the state championship so,alicia, how do you get points?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
how do you lose points?
So is it if you fall during atumbling pass or fall from a
stunt?
Speaker 5 (19:43):
so basically how it works is all teams start with
like a raw score or like yourpotential score, based on how
difficult your initial routineis, but it's scored out of 100
and you don't really gain points.
You only lose points from that100 based on your execution and
the different sections, whichincludes like tumbling, stunting
(20:03):
, your dance and everything, andeverything is scored and not
everything is like weightedevenly in the score.
The cheer is worth a lot more,so it's so vital you do very
well in that.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So, Ava, what's the hardest thing about being in
cheer?
Speaker 6 (20:20):
I think the hardest thing about being in cheer is
the fact that we are doing ityear-round.
I mean we have so many differentparts of the season that they
each have their challenges.
I mean spring practices, whenyou first try out, you're with a
new team, you're just gettingback into the swing of things
after you had a competitionseason and that's always hard
(20:41):
with teaching the new girls thejust the ways of corner canyon.
And then you have summerpractices, which we are outside
every day at 6 am doing fourhours of practice every day,
which can get really hard when Imean your friends are not,
they're sleeping in and you'regetting up at 6 am to work your
butt off.
But with that I mean, comes alot of reward.
I mean we continue thatthroughout the summer and then
(21:03):
we have the fall where we'reworking half times, we're
working our comp routines andwe're cheering all the games and
it can get really busy.
But I think that it is hard butit comes with a lot of reward
and it is really fun because Imean you're with the people you
love, you're with your bestfriends, and so the hardest part
really can be just I I mean theamount of time you put into it,
(21:24):
but it really is just the bestthing, Regan.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
what's the best thing about being a cheer?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Ava kind of touched on this a little bit but I
really think that the best thingabout being a cheer is all the
friendships that you make.
You know, because there's somegirls on the team where maybe
they're in different grades ormaybe they're in different
friend groups that you wouldn'treally hang out with outside of
cheer.
But when you get to cheer andyou spend all your time with
them, you really create such astrong bond with 36 different
(21:50):
girls and they become.
They become the people thattruly understand, because a lot
of times even your other friendsor, like I don't know, maybe
your family members won't reallyunderstand what cheer is like
and the difficulty of it.
But at the end of the day it'sthe 36 girls that you have by
your side that you know willalways be with you and you have
their back and they have yourback and it truly is a
(22:12):
relationship like no other.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
And coach.
What's the best thing aboutdedicating your life to a team
for an entire year Not just aseason, but an entire year on
the sidelines and in competition?
Speaker 4 (22:25):
You can't ask me questions like this because I
will cry.
Everybody knows this.
You can't ask me thesequestions.
I think the most rewardingthing is seeing the growth in
them, genuinely seeing that theyare capable of so much more
than they thought.
It's our job to push them pasttheir limits and at times they
(22:47):
hate us I know every single oneof them at one time or another
has hated me but when you seethem break through those walls
and accomplish something thatthey've never thought they could
do before, that to me, is thebest part.
And seeing a kid going frombeing a freshman to a senior and
the change in them, not only asathletes but as human beings,
and the strength and resiliencethat they've gained, that's the
(23:08):
journey for me that matters,whether we win or lose, because
some of my favorite years havebeen years that we haven't won,
and it's just them becominggreat humans and athletes.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
So tomorrow night is the state competition.
Corner Canyon Chargers will becompeting.
They'll be on the floor.
Tomorrow night is the statecompetition.
Corner Canyon Chargers will becompeting.
They'll be on the floortomorrow night.
It's at Utah Valley University.
We wish you all the luck in theworld.
Hashtag Go Chargers.
Congratulations on a fantasticseason so far.
We are cheering for you.
We are your biggestcheerleaders.
(23:39):
Thank you so much for listening.
This is Jeff Haney, ConnectCanyon.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect
Canyons.
Connect with us on Twitter,facebook or Instagram at Canyons
District or on our website,canyonsdistrictorg.
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