I eerea In Captains lead squad on despite coach's leaving The Harding cheerleading squad overcame the difficulties oflosing a coach by growing closer as a squad. During the fall of 2006, cheerleading coach Tressa Tucker lefc her position. However, she ieft behind twO strong captains: junior Blaze Chapman and senior Jamie Graul. "They have been wonderful captains and really stepped up," freshman Leslie Weeks said."When you have a coach, you have that person to do everything, but now that our coach is gone, the captains have really taken control of everything." T he captains took on many of the squad's organizational responsibilities, including running practices, making routines and bringing footballs to the games to throw out at the crowd. The captains wete also faced with the difficulty of maintaining the respecc of the squad. "We are really lucky because of our tV,IQ captains," sophomore Shanna McVay said. "They make up routines and everything we need to make sure we are always practicing as hard as we can, and they always get the routines done on time." The squad had to adapt to not having a coach and learn to take care of thi ngs on its own. "We have had to become more independent, not relying on someone to tell us what to do," freshman Ali Millican said. "We have had ro take the initiative and listen ro our captains more and respect them." Junior Kristin Mitchell said she app reciated the work Chapman and Graul put into helping the squad become bett~r organized. She said the captains helped put together a set schedule for the squad, wh ich helped them accomplish more in practice and made it easier ro juggle cheerleading with college life. "This year, more than any other year, has been more organized and structural," Mitchell said. The cheerleading squad benefited in another way after the loss of their coach; they became closer as a group. "We are a lot more unified just because we have to work so hard together to get routines and football stuff done," Weeks said. "We really have had to cooperate and work together and that has made us closer as a squad and as friends." Mitchell said the loss ofTucker was difficult because of the role model she was to the group. However, because of the changes the squad underwent, they had to work together and learn to respect each other's leadership more in order to grow as a group. "We have come closer just because we have had to help each other out more than usual," Millican said. Despite the difficulties they faced, the cheerleading squad relied on teamwork to get the job done. -Sarah Cummings At the Nov. 27 basketball game, the squad rallies the Rhodes Rowdies in support of the Bisons who took on Alabama-Huntsville. The majority of the squad this year were freshman and sopho– mores with only two juniors and two seniors. -Chelsea Roberson During a cheer Oct. 28, sophomore Jonathan Gehrich supports the cheerleaders by waving the Harding flag and running along the sidelines when the Bisons scored. For the first time, the cheer– leaders were requir~d to be able to do a back-handspring to count the points after the team scored. -Chelsea Roberson
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