From Idea to Impact: The First Basketball Cheer Season

This episode of Beyond the Bell features the senior captains of Mount Pisgah Christian School’s first basketball cheer team. From early practices to game day energy and leadership challenges, they share what it was like to help shape a brand-new program. This conversation highlights teamwork, growth, and what it means to lead when there’s no blueprint.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

You're listening to Beyond the Bell, a student-produced podcast from Mount Piscah Christian School. I'm Grayson Barrett, and this podcast is a space where students, teachers, and the whole community can connect. Here, we believe every person has a story to tell, and we want to bring those stories to life. Today's episode features two students who played a major role in leading something brand new at our school, the first ever basketball cheer team. They stepped into leadership and helped shape what it would become in its very first year. This conversation isn't just about cheering. It's about joining something new, building team culture, and setting the standard for the future. I'm joined by our two senior captains of the basketball cheer team. To start us off, could you both introduce yourselves?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

I'm Ella, I'm a senior and I'm a captain. I'm Carly, I'm also a senior and I'm also a captain.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

When did you first hear about the basketball cheer? And what were your initial thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Um, so we first heard about basketball cheer near the end of football season, um, that it was an idea, and I was very excited.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Yeah, it was around maybe like late October, early November, maybe. Um I was really excited because especially Ella and I, this is something we've been wanting to do since literally our freshman year. So, like, we I mean, we s we you would have thought something crazy happened when they when they told us we were gonna have it. We were so excited.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

What made each of you decide to join the team?

SPEAKER_01 1:47

I mean, I don't really think I had to think about it. I think it was just something like implied that like we had been wanting to do it for so long, like Carly said, that like I knew I was just gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Yeah, and it was an opportunity for us to extend our cheer season because we truly do love cheering, and you know, at the end of football season it's just it's just over, you know, and I think a lot of people would be like, oh no, but it's my senior year, I don't want to do that. And I think we were like, it's our senior year, so we do want to make it last as long as possible.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

What were those first few weeks like with everything being so new and all?

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Um, they were rough, I'm not gonna lie. Um they were definitely very interesting. I think for me, it was just such a new type of cheer, because I'm very used to like like the bouncy preppy type cheers, and basketball cheers are like a lot more like tight. So I think learning the style was not only like rough for me, but I just feel like as a team, like we weren't used to it.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Yeah, it was it was definitely different. Um, but I enjoyed it, and it was also because so many people wanted to do it, but you know, it's an awkward time because so many other sports are happening, you know, there's fall sports that are still kind of going on, winter sports, all that kind of stuff. So it was just kind of getting in the groove of like when everyone could actually come to practice so we could actually, you know, make progress and just hop having like two people know a cheer and then having to reteach it and just you know finally getting to like being able to move on.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Starting something new always comes with challenges. So let's go behind the scenes a bit. What does a typical practice look like for y'all?

SPEAKER_01 3:22

So we usually get to practice around 3:30. We would warm up, and then usually we would like start learning newer cheers, and then after Carly's mom would teach us the newer cheers, then we would go on to like review a lot of like the ones we might have learned prior to the week. And then we would have something called chant drill, which I'll let Carly explain. I'll let Carly explain that.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Okay, so chant drill, because all we ever did was just cheers, chance, chance, chance. So chant drill is when our coach, who happened to be my mom, she would she would call out the cheers and we would go. And she would give us scenarios and we would have to call a cheer and we would go. And if we did it, and if you didn't know it, you stood there and we did it. We just it was just repetition, repetition, repetition, just of all different cheers, all different scenarios, so that we actually knew what to do when, like during a game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Because basketball is just so much like faster paced, I feel like. So you had to like like I feel like football, we could turn around, talk, decide for a few minutes what cheer we wanted to do. But like the chant drill allowed us to be able to see, like, okay, now we're on defense and we need to call this cheer at this time. How do you bring energy to the crowds and players during actual games? This was not only a new style of cheers for us, it was like a new style of cheers for our school in general. Um, so I think just seeing like this different type of cheering was actually like very cool to see at our school. Um, and then also, yeah, I'll let Carly talk about like the basketball players and how it affected them.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, because I think also in basketball, there's a time where it can get silent, which is sometimes awkward, but that's you know, that's our perfect window to do a cheer. And so we have these longer cheers that beat us so hot all of those. And so, like that was something that was like attention grabbing because in football, you know, there's so much going on in the stands. It's easy to sometimes miss when there's something big happening, but since we are so close to the student section and to the crowd, um, being able to call those kind of attention-grabbing cheers was it really hyped up the crowd, I think.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

How do you handle mistakes or nerves during a game?

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Personally, I don't know that I really have a lot of nerves to go. That's good. I don't know, because I just really enjoy it and I'm just going out there having fun. And I think even if you do have nerves, going out there, you know, remembering why you're doing it, just having fun, um, can help to kind of ease those nerves.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah, I mean, I definitely didn't like maybe the first game we ever had, I was just nervous about like forgetting the new cheers we learned. But like, as we talked about earlier, like it was our senior year, and like I've been like, okay, senior year, I'm gonna say yes to everything. Like, when I I'd never played flag football before, but I was like, okay, I'm just gonna do it because it's senior year. So, like, that's the kind of mentality I went into. Like, it's definitely not nurses, but like I think on the mistakes aspect, usually crowds don't see, like, people aren't looking that hard at you, so they're not gonna notice if you make a mistake unless you like make a face and like oh my goodness, I just messed up. Like, you genuinely just have to keep going and act like nothing happened. Do you think the team has impacted the school spirit as a whole?

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Oh, I think definitely, because um, another thing that I do is I'm one of our school spirit coordinators, and so it was really important for RJ and I, especially to like get up crowd engagement and involvement um at the games, and I think basketball, because there are so many games, it's difficult to centralize like which ones are important, and I think not to toot our own horn or anything, but I think kind of as cheerleaders, we were able to kind of say, Hey, these especially these home games, these are our bigger games, like we want you all to come out and support. And I think talking with the basketball team, um, they were appreciative of all the extra support that they were able to have.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Yeah, because I think definitely, like, you know, Friday night, everyone would come to the football games, it would be like such this, like, oh yeah, I'm a good football game, are you good at a football game? But like, since basketball games are just on like random school nights, I think it made it harder, and like people wanted to like go to the games less because they were not at like a normal time that like it was another one tomorrow, it's fine, yeah. Exactly. So I don't know, I just think having the school spirit coordinators and the guys on the team were just genuinely so excited to like have people that were going to like advocate for them and want them to come their games.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Beyond the games, a big part of this experience is leadership and building a team as captains. What did your leadership roles look like?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Um, it was a lot of encouragement. I think it was different for us going from football cheer because people that do that, or the people that we had do that kind of cheer really did know cheer and knew kind of what to expect in everything. But with basketball cheer, there was some overlap in um in the people that were on the team, but we also had a lot of new people that didn't really know what they were doing. So I think for us it was kind of being patient and allowing a learning curve that we were not used to because we didn't typically have to do that.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yeah, like I think patience was definitely the biggest thing for me and Carly, just like teaching these new girls because it is exciting having new people, like we want to introduce them to cheer, and like also us not being as confident in basketball cheer, it was like we were encouraging ourselves, so then we were able to encourage others. And then I also think like as a captain, it's really more like helping your coach out. Like when she says to do things, I think definitely this year it was harder for us to like keep everyone together because they had like a lot of the girls had never experienced like being on a team and like I don't know, like doing this at this time. So I think it was us like I don't know, more like kind of keeping a controlled environment and the girls in like where they're supposed to be, at what time, sending lots of reminders. So I yeah. What are you most proud of from this season?

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Honestly, I'm just most proud that it happened that we've already had a team because we've been wanting this for seriously since our freshman year, we've been wanting this, and so the fact that we were able to have a team and have a team of people that truly, you know, enjoyed cheering and enjoyed being there, I think was just a huge accomplishment, and I'm so proud of our entire team for that.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah, I think like I'm also proud of it just even happening because I remember me and Carly freshman year going to who was it? Who was the teacher? Um Miss Williams. We went there. Like we needed, we we need a teacher that would just like like watch over us, but we'll do everything. Like you don't have to worry, like we need you as a body. We we we picked out uniforms, we had it all down, and then she like some some personal things happened and it never ended up working out. Um, but yeah, definitely that it happened, and I don't think there was much involvement like this year, like as many people jumping on to do it because it was the first year. So we only had about like eight or nine girls actually on the team. Um, but we made it work, and I'm very proud of that.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

What advice would you each give to next year's team?

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Um, I would say don't be afraid to try new things because this is something that truly was different. I mean, Ella and I have been sharing our entire lives, and we've never done anything like this basketball style, and it was all new. And I think that you could you could tell. I think in our first few games, you could tell that this was new, but because of our consistency and our effort, um we we got it together, we made it look good, and so I think not being afraid to try new things because you never know what you might love, you never know, you know, you could be great at it, but you will never know if you don't try it.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Yeah. I think like reflecting over this season, I think like obviously we want more girls to jump into it, and like as Carly said, don't be afraid to try it because you will be taught how to do it, especially if Carly's mom's coaching next year. You will learn how to do how to do everything and do it sharp because she wants us to look good, but I don't want people to be afraid from joining because they're scared, like I don't know how to do this. That is okay, and you will learn how to do it. And I think for next year, like I just want it to be something that's taken a little more seriously. Like, I want the I think I like I don't know, looking back at it, I want the girls, like, yes, we're supposed to have fun and be goofy, but like when it's time to lock in, I feel like we needed to lock in. So I feel like being a little more serious, and I get it, like these girls have never done this before, so like they don't really understand, like, when it's time to be sharp, we're gonna be sharp. Um, so yeah, that's probably my advice. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

And that's a wrap on today's episode of Beyond the Bell. Huge thank you to our basketball cheer captains for sharing what it was like to lead and shape a brand new team in its first season. Today's conversation shows that leadership is about stepping up, setting the tone, and leaving something better than you found it. Thanks so much for listening. Be sure to follow us on Spotify Podcast, and if you have an idea for a future episode, send us a message on Instagram at MPCS Liberty Bell. We'll see you next time.