Rain or shine, you’ll always see the cheer squad on the sidelines. This fall season, the cheer squad continued to work hard and changed style since last season. With over 10 girls added to the squad and a new coach, they are now louder and prouder than ever. Cheer Captain Lizzy Carlson gave some insight on everything you need to know about her journey to becoming a cheerleader and her experience on the squad.

Q: How long have you been doing cheer?

A: I started cheering in 7th grade, but I have been going to cheer clinics since like 1st grade.

Q: Why did you start cheering?

A: I think it’s a great sport for my personality. I’m very loud and I’ve always had a lot of school spirit and have gone all out for spirit days. It combines all that stuff and it’s very fun.

Q: What is your favorite part about cheer?

A: Probably the dancing, the dancing is fun with the band.

Q: What has been your favorite game to cheer at thus far?

A: It was my sophomore year, at the Tacoma Dome and it was the girl’s basketball champion game. It was really intense and really really fun to cheer at. Very hype.

Q: What is the hardest part about being a high school cheerleader?

A: It is a very big time commitment. It’s hard to do other stuff and figure out timing and everything else. Another thing is the stereotypes that go with cheerleaders. It’s kind of annoying.

Q: What is it like with the new coach?

A: She’s really nice, she cares about us a lot. It’s very different, it’s not bad, just different. It’s hard to get used to but its been really great so far. I had rough expectations going into it, but I was very pleasantly surprised. She is really good, and we’ve actually improved a lot with our skills and stuff. She’s been a really good addition to our team.

Q: What is your favorite cheer?

A: ‘Elevate Your Mind’, but we haven’t done it this year, so probably ‘Hey Crowd’. That always gets the crowd hyped up.

Q: How excited for basketball are you on a scale of 1-10?

A: 10/10 excited, there’s more games, and the squad is able to be really close up to the action. And it’s not in the cold, that’s a plus.