PhO!O by Daniel Dubois Basketball Cheerleaders. First Row: Mandi Hogan, Summer Daniel. Second Row: Cortney "Kashawn" Bradley, Liza Freeman Monica Glenn. Cheerleading squads keep crowds involved Last year, the Bison cheerleaders introduced male yel l leaders to the student body. This year, the Bison cheerleaders introduced skirts to the student body. To be able to get skirts, captains Carla Redd and Amber Keilers had to write a letter to Harding's Athletic Committee, asking for permission, and then they had to meet with i-he committee to discuss it. The Athletic Committe·e approved the request and allowed the cheerleaders to wear skirts . In previous years the cheerleaders wore skorts, which were actually a pair of shorts that looked like a skirt. "Since we were getting new uniforms this year, we needed skirts to make our uniforms look more collegiate," Keilers said. When tryouts were held for both the football and basketball squads, many of the girls were trying out for their first time in col lege . Sarah Johnston and Heather Roberts were two cheerleaders who were cheering this year for the first time. "I cheered in high school and, when I came to Harding, I went to all the games and saw the cheerleaders having fun cheering, so I tried out and made the squad," Johnston said. Roberts said, "I cheered throughout high school and I missed it a lot my first two years here at Harding, so I decided to try out." There was more to being a cheerleader than just showing up at the ath letic events and yelling. In the summer, a week before schoo l started, the football cheerleaders started their year by practicing eight hours a day. During this practice time they made the run-through banners for the football players and learned new cheers and dances. Throughout the football and basketball seasons, the squads practiced two nights a week, made the players treats before every home game and decorated the locker rooms with signs before every game. Also, the cheerleaders traveled to every away game, no matter how far the game was. During games it was the cheerleaders' job to not only entertain the crowd but to getthem involved in cheering and to be there for the athletes. "Our goal is to get the crowd involved as much as possibl e, to be enthusiastic, motivate the ath letes and give them support," Roberts said. Fifth year senior Miriam Dodson wrapped up her cheering career for Harding this year after cheering for seven seasons. "I enjoyed cheering a lot. I liked all the traveling we did and meetingall the new people Iwould not have met had it not been for cheer leading. I also li ked cheering with other girls who had different cheering styles, which was difficult, but we always seemed to adjust to each other," Dodson said. - Ryan Puckett CHEERLEADERS 231 •
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