At each basketball and football game is always the constant, supportive presence of the cheerleading squad. Never is there a silent moment on the court, and they are always guaranteed to lift the spirits of both the other athletes and the spectators. Now, the spotlight shifts as the cheer team is recognized for their own accomplishments.

When not performing at Reagan, the cheer team has been hard at work preparing for their competitive season. The girls attended two competitions: the North Carolina High School Athletic Association State Invitational Championship, which was held in Raleigh, and the Frank Spencer cheer competition, which involved teams from schools in the Winston-Salem area.

The team competed a different routine at each competition and spent hours cleaning and rehearsing both sequences at extended practices after school. The girls practiced in the auxiliary gym, in hallways, in stairwells, and in any space available to perfect their routines up to five days a week.

“We drilled stunts until we felt really comfortable with them,” said junior Rachel Rhoades. “We put a lot of effort and focus into making sure that everything and everyone was completely in unison.”

However, it is a different feeling when the team is at a competition than when they are acting as supporters at Reagan sporting events.

“It’s different than cheering at school because there we cheer for for other people,” said senior Pebbles Forbus. “At competitions, we’re showcasing and cheering for ourselves and our team.”

The audience response is also very different in a competition setting than the atmosphere at a Reagan sporting event.

“The crowd can really get into the cheers at a competition, and focus on the girls,” said head cheer coach Brittany Watson. “The girls also have to be more serious when competing. At the games they can be more free, and express themselves when they cheer. At a competition, it’s strictly business.”

Additionally, the routines are longer and more involved when competing than what the audience typically views at games.

“For basketball and football, we usually just do a cheer and a stunt,” Rhoades said. “For the competitions, our routine had a cheer, a stunt, a chant, a dance and a pyramid.”

All of the additional elements of a competitive cheer routine require the team to act as one cohesive unit. The group of girls is able to perform well together due to the strong bonds they share as teammates and friends.

“I think we did so well because of our team bonding activities,” Rhoades said. “We have had several little things like team dinners, and we’ve learned to work well together, which I think really helped us at competitions.”

All of the girls on the team have to be able to fully rely on each other in order to complete the routines, with their teammates safety literally in their hands as they perform stunts. A strong trust must be established for the performances to go smoothly.

“I think teamwork and overcoming our differences to work together really helped us this year,” Forbus said.

A clear example of the bond that the team has is showcased in the routine itself, as the girls are the ones who created each element being judged. Individual cheerleaders spent their time to create the routine, the cheers, and the dance that was put together into the final-two-and-a-half-minute performance.

The team received a bid for the national cheer competition at the NCHSAA State Invitational, where they competed against twelve other teams. At the Frank Spencer competition, they competed against all schools that competed in the basketball tournament.

“I’m very proud of the girls,” said Watson. “They’ve worked very hard this year, and they performed their absolute best.”