Cheerleading club chooses new captains

Preparations for next season are being made for the cheerleading club as they begin to search for a new captain. Most of the ladies on the team have been cheering for the majority of their lives and already have an ideal image of what they would like to see in a captain.

“I am running, there is no point in not trying,” Ashlee Hofner, sophomore criminology major, said.  “If I get picked then awesome. I am going to put myself in the role that I have to be in and I will be a supporter of my captains and my fellow cheer girls, work together and still do what I do now.”  

The process by which a captain is chosen is by email and the cheer team chooses the three best ladies.  The head coach will send out an email asking for those who would like to run to send in a short paragraph on why they would be the best fit as a captain.  Each member has three votes and may vote for themselves. The cheer coach does not vote.

“I personally like this way better,” Alexis Capria, sophomore psychology major, said. “That way your coach is not picking. It’s all the girls on the team picking who they feel can possess the most for the team.  There is no nepotism or favoritism upon our coach and she is really good with that so I just feel that having it be a team vote is so much better.”

Before casting a vote, many cheerleaders already have an idea of what they would like to see in a captain.  Communication is one quality that is always needed in any leadership role.

“I feel like somebody who is not afraid to have constructive criticism or isn’t afraid to tell the girls if there is something wrong,” Capria said. “You need to be that bigger person, and even if it means taking them aside or something, you need to have that communication with them to make sure everything is set in stone.”

Creativity is also needed for the cheerleading club.

“Someone who brings something a little bit different to the table,” sophomore education Nicole Bydalek said. “We have a lot of different cheers for our season but some of them we repeat a lot, so someone who is willing to go out of their comfort zone and say cheers we might not know or have us learn new ones.”

And building relationships while being a captain is a must for Hofner.

“We are a team, we are a community and we have to be able to have that trust and bond with each other so we can perform the stunts that we need to,” Hofner said. “Someone who is willing to work on each other and help build friendships.  Even if it not a friendship just make sure that they are respectful of us and we are respectful of them.

Cabrini University does not have a cheer “team,” instead they have a cheer “club.”  They cheer at both the men and women’s basketball games, performing during timeouts instead of half-time.  There are other clubs at the university and causes some concerns about the popularity of Club Cheer.

“My only concern about cheer is that no matter how hard we try we are never really going to be known as much,” Bydalek said. “During the games, our cheers are kind of repetitive and everyone knows them so it’s not like they are very surprised. I feel like, we do a lot of the same stuff during time-outs and don’t even get to perform at half-time.  We need to branch out a little bit more, get out name known and definitely have more experienced girls on the team.”

Being a club on campus, the captains of the cheer team need to make a big entrance on the team and increase the team’s popularity on campus.

At this time, the cheer coach has not made any comments about choosing the captains.