While at cheer camp over the summer, junior Rylie Scobey and her fellow cheerleaders won a special award and brought home an even more unique trophy. 

Every summer before sideline cheer season starts, the cheer team heads off to cheer camp where bonds are made and the cheerleaders prepare for the long season ahead. 

“Before the [cheer] season starts, we go to cheer camp,” Rylie said, “and we learn new stunts and new cheers. We won an award for most motivational, and that was a really big accomplishment, and we won a really big megaphone.” 

Cheer camps aren’t the only way Rylie gets ready for the season; she takes private tumbling lessons as well. She improves her skills and grows as an athlete through these classes. Her mom—her number one supporter—encourages Rylie’s tumbling lessons. 

Riley’s mom is her number one fan. She is supportive of all Riley’s cheer endeavors. 

“My mom is my biggest supporter,” Rylie said. “She is always there for me and trying to work with me to get more skills, and she pays for [all of my cheer activities]. She comes to all my games, she’s a really big supporter.” 

Rylie and her mom’s relationship is not the only one she has that is strengthened by cheer. 

Over the summer and the course of the two seasons of cheer—sideline and competitive—the girls on the team form many close bonds. The friendships made on the team have helped Rylie in school and have influenced her love for the sport. 

Rylie is a base, meaning she is on the bottom of the pyramid and stunts, and she is the one catching the girls thrown in the air. She loves working with her teammates and establishing the trust they have during stunting or tumbling. 

“I like tumbling because it is super fun,” Rylie said, “and [it’s] exciting when you get new skills. And [I enjoy] stunting because it involves a lot of trust and teamwork to make [the stunts] happen.” 

By having two different seasons for the sport, the cheerleaders have more time to get to know one another and grow out of their reserved stage. The trust needed to perform together grows between the two aspects of the sport. With the two seasons, they grow their friendships and teamwork skills, which are important factors of cheerleading. 

“Having everyone there for both seasons makes us closer,” Rylie said. “At the beginning of sideline season, we get new people, like incoming freshmen, so they’re a little shy. But towards the competitive season, we all open up and [become] super close.” 

Rylie started her cheer journey when she was around nine years old, and now, towards the end of her high school career, she is still competing in the sport that she adores. Rylie has been on both the sideline and competitive cheer teams since freshman year and plans on continuing through the end of her senior year. She anticipates the arrival of the competitive season, where she feels the bonds of teammates are the strongest. 

“[The best part of the team is] definitely the chemistry we have,” Rylie said. “We all get along super well. I mean, [I love] being able to have such a good time at practices and it not even feeling like practicing, we’re just having fun together.” 

As sideline cheer season has just come to an end, Rylie is elevated at the impending winter competitive season. Through her excitement, Rylie recalls some bonding experiences she has had with her teammates, such as a scavenger hunt. 

“We did a team scavenger hunt,” Rylie said. “It was really fun. We had to go up to random people and teach them random cheers and complete the tasks first.” 

Rylie loves all aspects of cheer: the tumbling, the skills, the cheers, and the friendships, and she welcomes new freshman cheerleaders to the squad. Rylie loves the cheer community and is so thankful she has the sport in her life. She embraces the trust and teamwork that come with the sport and appreciates how that helps her friendships with the other cheerleaders grow. 

“Honestly, it makes me super happy to do [cheer],” Rylie said. “I love the chemistry. I just love the sport in general.”