The Rolla High School cheerleaders have been an iconic part of hyping up the crowd and teams at football and basketball games for countless years. The team puts blood, sweat, and tears into their performances, spending hours during practices to perfect their skills. But some people still refuse to recognize cheerleading as a sport. These skeptics can now deny it no longer because the varsity cheerleaders are competing in a statewide competition this Feb.

One of the varsity cheer captains, Camilla Ragan, a senior, is excited to have the opportunity to compete.

“I’m very excited to compete…thanks to both of my coaches, Hollee and Holly, for making this happen,” said Ragan.

The performances that the varsity team are learning are similar, yet different from the typical routines and cheers that RHS cheerleaders learn for sporting events.

“In competition we do a fight song, a band chant, and then a sideline cheer. A sideline cheer is something you get involved with the crowd like, ‘We say Rolla, you say Bulldogs.’ The fight song is the fight song that the band plays, and then there’s a band chant. We haven’t gotten into it yet, so I don’t know exactly what we’re going to be doing,” explained Ragan.

Currently, the varsity cheerleaders are focusing on perfecting their football game routines since they have many months to prepare for the competition.

“Our regular practice is [everyday] 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm. But on Wednesdays we go three to six to get that extra time to work…so just once a week because it’s in Feb.,” said Ragan

Although junior varsity cheerleader Carissa Ayres, a sophomore, while not be competing this year, is still very excited to support her friends and teammates.

“I am so excited for varsity to compete. I think it’s going to be an awesome time. I’m really excited to support them, and when I get on varsity, I know that I’ll get to compete and that really excites me. So overall, I’m just really happy,” said Ayres.

Ayres and the rest of the junior varsity team is eager to support the varsity team in this new opportunity.

“We are so excited for them because we know they’re going to do absolutely amazing. We actually have a little competition in our summer camp and we won overall champions in both categories. So super excited for them,” explained Ayres.

As the team looks toward competing at a higher level, community support makes all the difference.

“I think they’ve got it. They’ve got it in the bag. I think they’ll win,” said Ayres.