Authored by Hannah Duggan
Emma Lewis, an 18 year old senior in high school, leads the Oliver Ames High School cheerleading team as one of their captains. Cheer is a major aspect of her life since she started Pop Warner in sixth grade, and she gives her all to this sport and the people involved in it.
She is an expert at balancing her busy cheer schedule and maintaining impressive grades in school. At times Emma gets stressed, as does any high school student, but she still manages to stay a strong leader for her team to look up to when they are in need of help or support in any aspect of their lives.
Emma has a pure passion for cheer and loves to be a part of the team. She believes that cheerleading has impacted her life greatly, and that without it in her life she would be a completely different person. When asked about what she loves about it, she spoke with a huge smile on her face.
“The good things about cheer are being able to improve your teamwork skills, make new friends, and stay fit. I cheer because every part of me enjoys it. I have so much fun performing with my team that is also like my second family.”
Cheer is sometimes made out to be a joke of a sport but it is a high interval sport that not just anyone can do. Emma is always extremely tired after a practice, game, or competition because of just how difficult it is.
“One of our routines are usually about two minutes and thirty seconds, but after like the first minute or so you are already so tired and out of breath. After the routine is over people are always throwing up, which ew just thinking about grosses me out,” she mentions as she winces her face at the thought of throwing up.
Practices are grueling and repetitive but Emma still finds herself spending a majority of her life outside of school doing this. Emma conditions with her team in the summer, cheers in the fall and winter, and has the spring off.
“The worst part and most hardest thing I do for cheer is probably the conditioning we do in the summer. And then throughout the fall and winter we have practice about almost every single day for roughly two and a half hours each. I am a flyer so when we do stunts and I get thrown around in the air, I get scared I am going to fall. And I have fallen. Many times.”
Emma is currently injured due to falling out of one of her many stunts she has practiced many times, but that does not stop her from being fully involved in her team still. She still attends practices and games and watches on the sidelines. She tried remaining positive while talking about her injury, but she looked down at her hands when she responded.
“I pinched a sciatic nerve in my butt and so I am now suffering from sciatica which is not fun at all. I just am looking forward to being able to cheer again because I miss it a lot, and it is not the same experience as watching from the side.”
Emma was chosen to be captain because she is dedicated and punctual. She also would always offer to help others even when she was not asked to. Her sophomore year was critical to her receiving the position as captain.
“I was a leader on the team my sophomore year I guess.” She pauses and then follows up with, “not like a leader-leader but I would help people and stuff and I had those like qualities I guess.”
Being captain and a part of a team can be hard sometimes but in the end the tough times outweigh the good times. Emma was nervous to be captain at first because of all the responsibility and pressure that comes along with it, but she is glad that she stuck with it.
“It gets kinda hard sometimes. Also there is lots of drama on the team sometimes, and I feel like that is with any and all sports teams though. But all of the drama between either a few select girls or just tension within the whole team can get in the way of like trying to reach our goals.”
Her goal as captain is to help others who share a passion for cheer. She gives the needed push to anyone who is hesitant to trying something new, but she also is aware of acknowledging and being respectful of a person’s boundaries.
After pausing for a second or two she goes on to say, “I really like the fact that I get to lead my team and like be a role model for them. It is a great experience being able to help them improve their skills and stuff, and then get to watch them grow over the course of like the season.”