We see them at our basketball games with their voices loud and their moves sharp, cheering for the school they love. At competitions, it gets even better: When they hit the floor, they show up and show out taking three 1st place wins in the Medium Varsity category this season. January 30, 2016 marked the end of the 2015 - 2016 cheerleading season for the Brooks’ Cheerleading Team, and I wanted to know, what does it take to be a cheerleader at Brooks?

In order to be as skilled as the Brooks Cheerleaders, there has to be some intense practices. These take place after school. I talked to one of the two varsity cheerleading captains, D’Asia Wright (senior), about how hard, on a scale of 1 to 10, the team practices and she answered, “15! Our coach pushes us to be better each and every practice, so there are no off-days; especially the week of competition.” Now hopefully this doesn’t scare you off from trying out for the team because she also added that, “It’s very rewarding because, in the end, you are not as tired when you leave the floor, you work harder on the floor... it just makes your skills better in the end.”

Now: you’ve made it on the team, what does it take to stay on the team? “Regardless of how high your level of skills, you may not make if you don’t have the sense of urgency to be pushed,” says Wright, and a few of her teammates I talked to later on agree. Another member on the varsity team, Mia Roberts (sophomore), and JV cheerleading captain Makaila Weathers (sophomore) both say that “you have to put in the effort” because “nothing comes easy.” Roberts also feels that in order to make it through the season, “you have to be strong in the mind.”

Maybe you should try out for the team next year and show us that you have what it takes to be a cheerleader at Brooks.

Here is their last performance of the season at the 2015 - 2016 Sectionals @ Joliet West High School