Cheer tryouts are just around the corner. All 8th graders that try out will be on the Freshman Cheer team. Meanwhile, 9th, 10th, and 11th graders that were previously in cheer can try out and have a chance to earn a spot on the JV or Varsity Cheer team. Students chosen will be officially on the team in the 2025-2026 school year.
“You have to attend these meetings. Then, the mandatory tryout clinic for 8th graders is on March 1st,” Cheer captain Hayden Lohman said. “For the current 9th-to-11th graders, the mandatory tryout clinic is from February 27th to the 28th.”
Anyone who is interested in trying out has to come to the tryout clinics so they can learn the steps they have to practice to perform at tryouts.
“The tryouts are on March 3rd-5th from 3 to 4:30 pm,” Lohman said. “It’s held in the LCHS performance gym.”
Students that try out will be informed at a later date whether they made the team or not.
“I think like 5pm on that Friday before we leave the results usually come out,” Co-captain Savannah Crisman said. “Then we have a split break and then when they come back that’s when they’re officially on the team.”
Although the captains and their team know all about tryouts and all the updates on it, they are not the ones in charge of tryouts and are not the ones who choose who makes it to the team.
“So whenever we try out, there are three judges at the front,” Lohman said. “And our coaches, they don’t have a say on who can make the team or who can’t, it’s just the judges up there. We can’t watch it, but we can open the door and do stuff for them.”
This year, the cheer team is excited, because a lot more people are going to try out. It was “way more than we had the couple of years before.”
“This is my second year on the team,” Crisman said. “I would say it’s a bit nerve-wracking when it’s your first time trying out. You don’t necessarily know what you’re walking into. And then my second year, I was way more confident going into it.”
When trying out, students have to perform a series of different moves to see if they have an idea of what cheerleaders will do once they make the team.
“We have a cheer that the previous seniors taught us and then we have a dance that we have to perform in front of the judges,” Lohman said. “The cheer we do by ourselves and then we do the dance with two other people alongside us. Then we have to showcase our jumps and tumbling, but you don’t need tumbling, because it’s not required to be on the team.”
Although many people feel extremely nervous when trying out, Lohman and Crisman believe that all that matters is staying positive and keeping a smile on your face.
“So as long as you’re prepared and you want to make the team, then you will make the team,” Crisman said. “Even if you don’t feel confident in one specific thing, as long as you look like you’re having fun and you’re trying, I promise you will make the team and probably make varsity. Like if you mess up, do not show it.”
Lohman and Crisman think that as long as students are positive, like what cheer is all about, then they will definitely be successful. They are excited to see what the team will be like next year.
