Two New Hope cheerleaders look to compete at the next level
NEW HOPE, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s college signing season for many athletes across the viewing area.
Some of those students will be continuing their athletic careers on the sidelines.
Brileigh Glidewelll has been cheering since she was a little girl.
She started in competitive cheer and then made her school’s squad.
She said she knew once her high school career came to an end she wasn’t going to be ready to give up her sport.
“It’s kind of been a thing I have wanted to do ever since I was little like going to those college games and watching cheerleaders on the sidelines and I was like I want to be that when I grow up,” said Glidewell.
Now, after a lot of blood, sweat, and tears she is taking that love for cheer to the next level on an athletic scholarship to Itawamba Community College.
“I and my mom had a long conversation about that before I started going to Clinics. She was like you really need to try for this because if you end up getting a scholarship with your schooling and it just became a thing it’s a full scholarship,” said Glidewell.
Rachel Robertson has been the head varsity coach for eight years.
She said that the sport is more than just chants and pom poms.
Like any other athlete, they work on technical skills and they even tumble and stunt girls in the air.
“I think there is this idea because they wear a skirt and a bow that it is not as athletic but I think most of them when they see the routines realize these girls work,” said Robertson.
Addison Vickers will be taking her cheer skills to Mississippi College.
She said this is something she has worked hard for, but at one point she didn’t even know if she would cheer in college.
“Actually my senior year I got a concussion and I wasn’t in my senior pep rally and that was pretty hard and very sad. I just feel like I have worked so hard for it. There are obviously a lot of dangers like anything can happen,” said Vickers.
Like many on a cheer squad, Vickers has learned every position.
This way she can be better prepared when it’s time to take the field.
“They would just need to come to a practice because there is a lot that goes behind the scenes that nobody sees because on Friday nights they just see us smiling and laughing and cheering but there is just so much. A lot of sweat and things that go into it” said Vickers.
Robertson hoped that these two seniors inspire others to always stay motivated.
“They went to work and they took extra classes and pushed themselves to get extra time on the mat not here at the school because they were done but went to various places and had to go to clinics so to see the amount of work and the drive that they had to have on their own, no coach was pushing them,” said Robertson.
Wednesday was the two seniors’ last day of high school, so it won’t be much longer until they trade out those Trojan uniforms for new ones.
