Cheer team boasts tournament, academic successes to end season

The cheer squad at Bellefonte Area High School finished its season this winter not only with tournament accolades, but also boasting a team academic average of 93.12 percent.

Coach Skip Headings said practices are held each week with four to eight hours of practice time to work on making sure routines are clean and difficult enough to get high scores from the judges. Each routine must have specific skills incorporated.

The program, he added, consists of two competitive teams – the Gameday team and the traditional team. The Gameday team competes and performs similarly to how they would at school-associated sports games, such as football. The routine includes Bellefonte Area’s fight song, and offense and defense cheers. The traditional team, however, is more complex. It includes tumbling, dancing and stunting efforts.

Last school year, the squad’s Gameday team was ranked eighth in the country.