Compared to their 12-member team three years ago, the cheer program has grown tremendously.
The cheer team now has around 40 athletes with a full varsity, JV and eighth grade team. It also includes four male cheerleaders on varsity.
Last year, the cheer team started out with only girls, but they acquired four boys toward the end of the season.
Senior Hunter Drops, a second-year member, said the team works together very well.
“Cheerleading has helped me become better athletically, and also has gave me the opportunity to develop really amazing friendships,” Drops said.
According to Drops, the addition of boys to the team inspired more athletes to join, both boys and girls.
Sophomore Courtney Grant said the team does a lot of bonding, as well as talking and planning ways to contribute to the football and basketball games as a cheerleader.
“Cheer has improved my personality,” said Grant. “It has also made me have a better attitude toward school.”
Head coach Kallie Mill and assistant coach Tiffany Tibbets said they both love working with the team.
“We all have the same goals, and get along really well,” Mill said. “Everyone on the team understands that even if one athlete is missing, we can’t do the performance. The team understands commitment.”
Mill was a member of a state championship cheer team as a Pirate. She cheered at Marshfield from 1994-‘98 and attended college at Portland State University. Mill then went on to coach cheerleading at Southwestern Oregon Community College for three years.
According to Mill and Tibbets, the team’s goal is to finish in the top three at the state competition.
“We have been working hard every practice on the state routine before the first one in January,” Drops said.
The team will attend two competitions before they compete at state on Feb. 13 in Portland.
Mill said she knows what it takes to compete at the state level.
“We believe that top three at state is very obtainable,” Mill said. “We just have to depend on each other as a team.”
This year the team has also added new freshmen.
“Since last year the team has grown a lot stronger, both athletically and in numbers,” Grant said.
According to freshman Kodee Harwood, JV captain, the cheer team works together like a family and everyone is supportive of each other.
This is the first year with a varsity, JV and eighth grade team. There are nine members on the JV team and 12 on the eighth grade team.
“We have four new girls this year and we are getting better all the time,” Harwood said.
Tibbets said she loves the diversity among the cheerleading squad and is looking forward to accomplishing great things with the team.
“I love working with this group,” Tibbets said. “The kids just love cheer.”
