Cheer team performed during halftime at the Rockhurst High School football game Sept. 14. 

Cheer performs once a year during halftime at Rockhurst, but this year the performance was choreographed by the seniors. The seniors decided to all be captains together and part of their leadership included choreographing the performance for the game, according to senior captain Rachel McRae. 

“I think we did a really great job [in the performance] and the seniors put in a lot of work to make it go really well,” McRae said. “We decided we didn’t want to do a voting system [to pick captains] so we all got along really well and had no arguments.” 

Cheer only has 12 members, which is much less than they have had the past few years. Because of the smaller team, cheer members had to have more energy and creativity to make up for the lack of people, according to Head Cheer Coach Tabby McCarthy.

“We were a little worried about having a team half the size of past teams. That worry is gone,” McCarthy said. “I truly believe there is something special about these 12 girls. Their determination and love for each other is impressive.” 

With the smaller team, they were able to be in closer contact with each other and have a great bond between grades, according to junior Sophia Allen. The team has been more positive this year which helped not make the performance as stressful this year, according to Allen.

“I think that’s why the performance was so good,” Allen said. “We had a good team bond, and all the seniors gave pep talks before the game. It was more casual than it has been which helped make it not as stressful.”