Cheer team gets new coach midway through season
Cheer team gathers around the student section for multiple photos before the start of the football game.
October 7, 2021
While most school sports start in the month of August, the cheer team’s season began all the way back in July. It was a surprise to the cheer team when they found out that they would be getting a new coach.
“It was a pretty stressful transition because we had to all adjust to different hours and styles which meant a lot of long practices trying to figure everything out,” freshman Aleea Lictenberg said.
While the team tries to navigate through the new adjustments, new coach Makenna Murkley ‘17 has the same struggles.
“The biggest challenge I’m facing with the team is the lack of practice they had over the past year and half due to COVID,” Murkley said.
Murkley had originally been the assistant coach to the cheer team for about a month and has only been head coach for about three weeks now.
“After graduating college, I realized I missed cheer more than I thought and wanted to help out the team,” Murkley said. “I had cheered for 10 years for Berlin before graduating in 2017. Then took four years off to focus on school.”
During Murkley’s time of stepping in, the cheer team was practicing their routine for the Homecoming pep rally. The team only had five practices to get the routine down.
“I think the pep rally went really well. We were all so happy to show off what we had spent so many hours into. We hit our routine and it couldn’t have made me happier,” Lictenberg said.
Murkley and the rest of the cheer girls share the same thoughts about how the pep rally went. Not only did these girls have to worry about the pep rally but also the football games.
“Their performance during the games has gotten a lot better. They are already louder and have sharper motions which is what I (and the rest of the spectators) like to see,” Murkley said. “They have already faced two rainy games and they pushed through to cheer on the football team and their school.”
Despite Murkley being the cheer coach for only three weeks now, she couldn’t be more proud of the team and what they have accomplished in such a short amount of time.
“A benefit that came out of this was more support and definitely more comfortable and more fun to be there,” sophomore Alexis Reabe said.
Tryouts for competition season will be held on October 11 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. in the Middle School Multipurpose room. Anyone that is interested can contact any of the cheer girls or Makenna Murkley at [email protected].
