From continuous backflips to holding up a girl with two locked arms, these competitive cheerleaders can do it all. They travel across state lines to be able to participate in this physically challenging and demanding sport. Demands stretch from keeping weekends busy to being at choreography for hours at a time.
flyer for the Code Black team. “Cheer
means lot to me. I’ve grown up with
it, so I feel like it’s shaped me into the
person I am today,” Smojice said. (Kailey Foushee)
Sophomore Julia Gentile competes with Pack Athletics, a competitive cheer organization, and has been for the past three years. Gentile’s consistency in the sport has brought her to level up to the nationals team in the short time she has been a part of their program.
“I have done Pack for three years, but there are different levels, so I have been on a different level every year. This year I am on a higher competitive team,” Gentile said.
As a member of the nationals team, Gentile must travel for all the competitions. Their travels consist of long car rides or even flights at times.
“We travel like three times a month. We go to North Carolina, Georgia, we went to Dallas this year, and we go to Orlando a lot,” Gentile said.
Their competitive schedule of going against teams from many different states allows them to be an improving and successful team.
“We cheer for competitions and we go against different teams from other states. This year I am on a national team so we win a lot more than last year. We have won basically all of our competitions,” Gentile said.
Junior Romy Thomas also cheers for Pack Athletics although she has only been a part of their travel team for the past year. However, she has been with Wando’s cheer team for a little longer.
“So this is going to be my fifth year, so I will have completed four seasons with Wando cheer and one year with Pack Athletics,” Thomas said.
Thomas has experienced two different versions of the same sport, going from sideline cheer at Wando to Competitive cheer around the country. Even though Thomas has only been doing club competitive cheer for a year, she still travels as much as Gentile and sometimes even a little farther.
“I was actually just in Kentucky this past weekend but we have been to Chicago, and Texas, Orlando. So we travel a good bit. Probably three way flights and airport type traveling, but it is not usually too bad since it is just the weekends,” Thomas said.
Between Wando cheer and Pack Athletics Cheer, there can be a lot of differences. The differences between team bonding, location, and atmosphere are all factors.
“There are different aspects of both teams for sure that I feel like with Pack it is more of a competitive vibe but with Wando Cheer, it is more like family and more chill in the sense that everyone is around each other at school and it is just more friendly because we just know each other better and we are all from the same area. With Pack, there are girls from all over Charleston. So, Wando is just more comfy since I am familiar with the people,” Thomas said.
As Thomas and Gentile have only been participating in competitive cheerleading for just a few years, Senior Madelynne Smojice has been with Pack Athletics for 12 years. Smojice is not a part of the Wando cheer team, but her impact at Pack is long lasting.
“Once you start getting older, like past sophomore year, upperclassmen on the team definitely start taking a leadership role,” Smojice said.
Along with her impact on the team, she continues to do clinics for younger girls and
inspires the next generation to do the sport she loves.