They have the loudest voices in the crowd. They’re at every football and basketball game. Yet the cheerleaders of N.C. State always seem to get overlooked.
The cheerleaders are one of the most vital components of the fanbase, bringing Wolfpack optimism and pride even in times of defeat.
“Our goal is to cheer so hard that it turns the game around for the team,” senior Meredith Hamlet said. “We cheer so hard that it changes the outcome of the game, gets the team pumped up and gets the crowd into it, because with the crowd’s support, everything is easier.”
Some cheerleaders are not recruited by the school, but are picked up by the team at the program’s annual tryouts in April.
“We do end up scouting, looking for kids who have the certain skill set that we want,” Trammel said. “But a lot of kids contact us. A lot of guys, especially, will cross over from other sports. They’re athletic, and they want to be a part of a team, still.”
The State cheerleading program is split into two sections: large and small coed squads. Trammel said that selections for the teams were made off of skill sets of the athletes, not in a sense of varsity versus junior varsity.
The small coed squad, led by Hamlet and junior Tyler Downs, works mostly traditional group stunts, where both men and women act as bases. They perform at all women’s basketball events and occasionally at gymnastics meets.
The large coed team, however, performs partner stunts with one man and one woman. The team, led by senior captains Daniel Kearns and Kyleigh Garrison, cheers at men’s basketball games.
With both the Wolfpack men’s and women’s basketball teams enjoying recent success, both cheerleading teams have been on the move, scrambling from city to city to make the next game.
“This year was a lot more [demanding] than it has been in the past,” Garrison said. “Especially towards the end [of the men’s basketball season] when we had the ACC Tournament and the NCAA. We had no idea if we would even make the tournament, so having to pack everything up and leave was a little bit of a struggle.”
However, traveling can also be fun for the athletes. Downs said that traveling with his team is one of the most rewarding experiences of cheering for the Pack.
“Traveling with the team is awesome,” Downs said. “Obviously we like being home in Raleigh to support the team, but it’s great to go out and see places while still supporting the team.”
Not only do the cheerleaders attend games and cheer on their school, the team also has practice four days a week in addition to schoolwork and various appearances for events, such as charity walks and fundraisers for the school.
What may be most pressing for the cheer teams is the rapidly-approaching NCAA Collegiate Cheer Competition, which begins April 9. The five-day event, which takes place annually in Daytona Beach, Fla., showcases some of the best competitive cheerleading teams from across the nation.
Trammel said that the team had been preparing for the championship all season by competing in smaller competitions around the Triangle and working on its routines in the limited practice times in between games.
The small coed team has been on the cusp of victory for quite some time, bringing home silver medals after the past two championships. At the 2013 event, the Pack fell by only one-half of a point. Hamlet said that the team hoped to improve its tumbling, a key skill in national competition.
The large coed team has struggled at nationals in the past few years, posting seventh-place finishes at each of the past two years. This year, however, Kearns said that the large coed team is looking to put the past behind it and arrive at Daytona with clear heads and a clean slate.
