The football team is not the only one practicing to impress the fans at Carter-Finley Stadium this season. The NC State cheerleading team has been hard at work getting ready to lead the crowd and motivate the Wolfpack to victory.
The cheer squad participates in football games, men’s and women’s basketball games and competes at the National Cheerleaders Association collegiate nationals in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Unlike many Division I sports, the cheer squad does not recruit athletes but instead holds tryouts in the spring and fall. Spring tryouts are held in late April and fall tryouts are held in early September.
“Most people come to spring tryouts because they know when they’re applying to college if they want to cheer or not,” senior backspot Daniel Smith said. “We mainly have fall tryouts for those who decide to go to NC State later than most.”
Tryouts take two days to complete and consist of a brief interview, evaluation of running and standing tumbling skills, evaluation of stunting skills and the learning and performing of a band cheer.
During the summer, the team attends camp in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to work on skills and to try to win a bid to NCA nationals.
The team practices four times a week in the Close-King Indoor Practice facility, which recently became available to the team this past August.
“Usually we practice three times a week but right now it’s four since we’re getting ready for football season,” senior flyer Kara Collins said. “We practice pyramids, chants and making sure the first-years know what to expect before we go out in front of 60,000 people.”
Along with its practices, the team participates in two days of strength training which they call “lifts.”
“Lifts is like every other sport; we have an hour with our lift coaches and the strength coaches will work us out,” Collins said. “We do everything, just like the other sports; we squat, we jump we run, etc. so that happens twice a week.”
With football season starting up again, the team works hard to keep the crowd pumped up with the help of the mascots.
“The atmosphere of Carter-Finley is great,” senior flyer Nigeste Carter said. “It’s loud and exciting and especially this year we have a lot of night games so it’s really exciting.”
After football season finishes in November, the team transitions into competition mode, focusing more on routines at practice instead of game day cheers and crowd appeal.
“Football is fun because you get to cheer on your school and be in front of all the fans, and competition is where we get to show the athletic side of the sport and what we’ve been working on all year,” Smith said. “Competition is a little harder on the body, but it’s fun to showcase more of the sport aspect of it.”
Two of the most important facets of cheerleading are teamwork and trust, which is something the NC State cheer squad prides itself on.
“We have such a family aspect on the team, everyone loves each other and respects each other,” Collins said. “When practice is good it’s really good, and when it’s bad it’s still pretty good because we know how to pick each other up.”
Head coach Harold Trammel has been working with the team to get it ready for the season and succeed when it does head to nationals in the spring.
“It’s a really talented group,” Trammel said. “Their ability to put in work where it needs to be done is going to be what takes them to the next level.”
