The football sideline will be louder than years past this upcoming season with the SHS cheer team being so large. The team is finally getting its numbers back after COVID-19 with new people trying the sport for the first time.

“This is my biggest group of girls since I’ve been here …,” head coach Nicky Givens said. “We’re getting back our numbers (and) it’s exciting.”

Givens says that the team has a lot of seniors this year, so utilizing the younger girls has been very important because those are the girls that will eventually be on varsity.

Ever since the pandemic hit, there has been a downtick in numbers on the team.

According to Givens, when her daughter was on the team before the pandemic, the number of girls was around the same as it is now. However, having this many girls on a team is still abnormal.

One of the main reasons for this rise is the amount of incoming freshmen trying out for cheer. This year, Givens estimated that around 12 to 13 girls came from the middle school, which was more than normal.

Due to these increasing numbers, this is the first year they could have three full teams, a freshman, JV and varsity cheer squad, in a while.

Senior cheer captain Ellie Herwehe says she is excited to lead the freshmen this year. Her goal was to make sure everyone was welcome and enjoyed cheering.

“I think it’s one of the best years we’ve had so far,” Herwehe said. “… I think it has started better than any of my other years.”

Herwehe says that having more freshmen this year helped create a stronger bond among them, which can help alleviate the nerves that often come with the first year of high school.

In the end, she is looking forward to having a bigger team this year and is more excited than ever.

“I think having a big team is definitely a plus because it’s just a lot more energy,” Herwehe said.