The Air Academy cheer team has many responsibilities because it is a sport and the comeback from last year makes it more difficult. 

Some students have transitioned from competitive cheer to Air Academy’s cheer team and some have changed from last year to this year as athletes are competing and learning more skills. 

“Physically it’s more demanding to switch to high school cheer because I used to be on a coed team, so switching to an all-girls high school team has caused me to work a lot harder,” senior Zoe Unsell expressed. 

For some background, Unsell was in All-Star cheer (Competitive Cheer) and this year she just recently switched to high school cheer. Unsell has made the switch swiftly and has progressed so much already.

For others, they are switching back to a normal year and getting used to things going normal again. 

“I love the change! I love more practice and pushing harder. Sure it’s really difficult on all our bodies, but there’s no place I’m happier than when I’m at cheer,” junior Kimmie Wermstin stated. 

As Wermstin exclaimed, change was very good, yet challenging in a good way from her perspective. For Wermstin, pushing harder, practicing more, and challenging herself is good for her in a variety of ways. 

“I prefer a lot of things from last year like one we aren’t always getting quarantined, and two we just have an overall better team. Even from my freshman year, this team has grown leaps and bounds,” Wermstin exclaimed with joy.

This has shown that as more time progresses, the team has advanced more than it ever has before. Having said this, as more time goes on, more cheerleaders will continue to stay on this path.

“This team has been progressing at an exponential rate, even though we have had setbacks because of injuries, especially because of camp, and increased practice times,” senior Reagan Huskisson expressed.

Two athletes have vocalized that the team has been growing so much from just showing up to practice and giving it their all. Now the team just needs to keep pushing and they might just make it to the big leagues like moving on to larger competitions.

Before we get the team can advance to a competition they must participate during game days.

“I like how we get to cheer at games and stuff, and I like how we can do more choreography and cheers and everything,” Unsell exclaimed.

Unsell and many others agree that the team is connected more than ever right now.

“In high school cheer I’ve formed a lot of great relationships with ppl I get to see every day, which is really nice I like how it’s given me, I don’t know, the main thing is honestly just the people,” Unsell said.

As Unsell declared and as many others would, the team this year is more connected than any other year.

As most would say, cheer is not just a fun easy sport, but instead, it takes hard work and passion to get through practice. If an athlete does not want to go to practice on that one bad day or where she is not cooperating with the team, she can bring the whole team down by just one bad comment.

There is much more to discuss, but the AAHS cheer comeback is evident.