Most days after school, if you venture down to the old gym through the white painted hallways and heavy double doors, you will see the FHC cheerleaders practicing their cheers and tumbling across the blue, sweaty mat sitting atop the hard gym floor.

You’ll also see senior Enya Burrow: a long time member of the team.

The blue, sweaty mat is the same one from Enya’s sophomore year. The place where she practiced and practiced and practiced, surrounded by her teammates, until she finally accomplished her first tumbling skill—a back walkover.

“[In] cheer practice I got my first tumbling skill my sophomore year,” Enya said. “It’s just a back walkover but, at the time, it was such a huge improvement for me, and I never thought I could do that.”  

A back walkover is not the most advanced skill, but, nonetheless, Enya was proud of herself for accomplishing her first tumbling skill.

While cheerleading is a huge part of Enya’s life, it was not always something she was interested or involved in. She did not try out until her sophomore year after seeing some of her friends enjoy the sport and wanted to give it a whirl.

“My two closest friends were cheerleaders,” Enya said, “and, ever since I was little, I have always wanted to try it, so I decided to try out my sophomore year, and I kind of stuck with it ever since then.” 

Not only does Enya spend countless hours during the autumn season in the gym practicing routines with her teammates to showcase at the football games, but she also spends time practicing for the multitude of competitions the team attends.

And, she also fills her spring hours after school with track and field.

“My dad brought [up] the idea of doing track to me,” Enya said. “It was my freshman year and he had wanted me to do a sport, so we decided that track would be the best and [then] I tried it. I actually ended up loving it.”

And even though track has supplied Enya with a plethora of memories and great experiences that she will remember for the rest of her existence, one moment in particular stands out as being a positive experience: getting picked to do the 4×200 relay race by her coach.

“When my coach picked me to do the 4×200 relay race, which had been my goal, I was really excited and happy,” Enya said. 

While Enya loves both cheerleading and track and field for different reasons—seeing as they are very different sports—there are a few things that both sports have in common, and they are what she loves so much about them.

Like many other sports, both of Enya’s do a healthy amount of team-bonding to ensure the team’s beautiful chemistry. And after doing three years of cheerleading and three years of track and field, Enya knows just how important team bonding is.

“My favorite parts are definitely the team bonding,” Enya said, “and how you create really close connections with people.” 

Part of being able to form great, genuine friendships is being able to listen to others well, a skill Enya tries to radiate in her everyday life.

She thinks her ability to converse with people is due, in fact, to her ability to connect with people and form unbreakable bonds with those around her.

“Something I find interesting about myself is [that] I am a good listener,” Enya said. “I am very good at helping people, especially connecting with their emotions.”

Even though being a dual-sport athlete, such as Enya, can come with an extremely busy schedule, she finds ways to keep herself from becoming overwhelmed.

Between homework, school, cheerleading, track and field, and friends, life can get pretty chaotic for her, so she has come up with words of advice for her younger self.

“Do not stress about anything,” Enya said. “It will only cause more problems. Live in the moment.”