Football games are not the only spot where Shy-Annes and cheerleaders perform. Some may not know that these groups also participate in a spring competition season.
The two different seasons call for many different routines and skills. For the cheerleading squad, football season is about pumping up the crowd while the competition season focuses on display their talents which normally aren’t seen on the field.
“Football season is more chants and crowd oriented while competition is more performance based and difficult skills like stunting and tumbling,” cheerleading coach Kim Speckman said. “This gives the girls chances to try new styles of dance.”
Competition season gives the girls a chance to demonstrate their skills and be competitive in cheerleading.
“You need a lot more endurance, strength and skill, because it takes a lot out of you,” sophomore cheerleader Kelsey Hayes said.
The cheerleading team participated in the National Cheerleaders Association Competition, the Silver Team earned 6th place and Blue Team placed 11th. The Silver Team also came away with the award of the “Most Innovative Choreography Award.”
Students are accustomed to seeing the Shy-Annes dancing on the football field, but with competition season, they change the style of music and technique of dancing.
“During competition, we do jazz and lyrical hip-hop – something that you wouldn’t necessarily see on the football field,” Shy-Anne coach Anne McBride said.
Sophomore Kinsey Craig says that she likes competition season just as much as she does football season.
“There are different parts I like, during football season I miss competition season and during competition I miss football season,” Craig said.
The Shy-Annes have two main competitions this year, one was at Consol and the other was through a dance company in Houston.
The team has won award for jazz, pom, military, technique, choreography, and many other individual and team awards during their competitions this season.
In order to be a part of these competitions, students must attend a mandatory meeting and go to camps which train them in the style of dance they do.
“We have a clinic we hold all week where we teach a kick combination, a jazz combination, and how to do right and left splits and then we try out on Friday,” McBride said.
Learning and participating on the drill team isn’t the only feature it takes to be in Shy-Annes of cheerleading, it takes a person with a special personality and someone who thoroughly enjoys dancing.
“Personality is a big thing whenever you’re watching someone,” McBride said. “You want to see that they are enjoying themselves and having fun so we will look for a smile projection and then over technique.”
