Up Close and Personal with Four Members of Cheer

The new cheerleaders are chosen and ready for the 2018-2019 school year.

Anya Jackson will be one of the squad members for the Varsity team. “I´m very excited to start cheering again,” she said. “I feel that the team is going to be better and we´re going to be very empowered as a team.” This will be Jackson´s second year of cheering for Armijo and she said that all of the girls pretty talented already, so she´s “hyped to be working with them.”

“I´m looking forward to [the coaches] pushing us to be the best we can and I feel like they´re going to be really good, just by what they were saying at conditioning and tryouts.” The new cheer adviser, Ms. Tanya Sias, has already shown that she is flexible and determined, shifting try-outs to accommodate all individuals who were trying out for the squad.

One of the future members of the Junior Varsity (JV) squad is Aiyanna Adams. This will be her second year cheering for Armijo but she also was on the cheer team for the Northbay Mustangs this year. “I´m so hyped to for this season. I can´t wait to bond with each of my teammates and improve on my skills this season,” said Adams. She also said that she can´t wait to be close with her coach because she seems like she is very experienced but complicated. Adams has a feeling that practices will be very intense but productive.

Another representative of the Varsity squad is Kaiya Phillips, who will be cheering at that level for the first time this year. She said that she is also anxious to start bonding with her team, both at games and beyond. “I feel like it´s a different experience that what I´m used to so I´m looking forward to it, ¨ she said. She cheered for the JV squad this year and is looking forward to continue being part of the team. “I´m hoping our new coach does challenge us a little more at practices so we can all struggle together but have fun in the end,” said Phillips. “Cheer is just for fun, I don´t expect anything serious out of it such as college,” she said. She does intend to take college seriously and plans to go to the University of Texas in Austin.

Alyza Thornson will also be part of the cheer squad, serving on both the Varsity and JV teams. “I feel that I accomplished a lot for only my second year in the cheer world,” Thornson said. She is hoping to earn a cheer scholarship to UCLA in 2021.