As many of the county-wide budget cuts are becoming more apparent to students, there will be a shortage of cheerleaders and pom-poms walking the halls on game days. With the athletic program being one of the most affected aspects of the budget cuts drastic measures have been taken in order to save what sports are left. Not only has a $100 fee  been required for anyone who wants to play a sport, but swim practice times have been reduced, and now an entire sport has been eliminated from the winter lineup- winter cheerleading.

Kelly Goodison, who was a member of the winter cheer last year can’t believe the changes that are being made to the athletic program.
“I don’t think it’s fair that [winter] cheer got cut because we don’t really use that much money, just insurance,” Goodison said.

Because winter cheer has been excluded from the athletic program the former participants of the sport will now be given the choice to either find a new activity to join, or have one less extra curricular activity to participtae in during the school year. There is question as to whether or not it is fair that cheer was singled out.

“I might do gymnastics for fun, but if not then probably nothing. I’m really sad, I wish we could still have winter cheer,” Goodison said.

Another thing to consider is that this year there won’t be any cheerleaders at the basketball games. While the cheerleaders sometimes get in the way of the game with balls and players flying over the sidelines, they still stay strong and do their best to help support and cheer for the boys.
Many basketball players, including sophomore Shannon Casey, a member of the JV team last season, have mixed opinions.

“I’m not going to miss the cheerleaders because sometimes they would get in the way of the game and they could be distracting. Also, they didn’t really help pump me up for playing,” Casey said.

While some basketball players may not miss the cheerleaders, others, including sophomore Jae Kim, are disappointed that they won’t be at their games anymore.

”I want there to still be cheerleaders because they help motivate me to win my games,” Kim said.

Even though there won’t be cheerleaders at the games anymore many people are coming up with creative solutions to the problem of not having cheering on the sidelines.

“I think not having cheerleaders at the games means that the [basketball] team will have to step up and be more encouraging to each other to take the place of the cheerleaders,” sophomore Abby Barnes said.

Another event that will be affected will be Pack the Pit, which is the wrestler’s senior night and easily the meet with the most attendance. Without the cheerleaders being there a lot of spirit won’t be there either.

“The cheerleaders definitely added to the high school spirit atmosphere and did make [senior night] seem like a special event,” junior Wally Geiger, said.

“I’ll probably go to the games and meets and cheer anyways, just not with a team and uniform this year,”said Goodison.