Abby McAllister, a junior on the HSE basketball cheer team has a busy schedule to balance year-round. Although she is on the basketball cheer team here at HSE, she is also heavily involved in competition and football cheer.
When asked about how she first got into cheer she said, “I first started cheering at Indiana elite in second grade after doing gymnastics for a bit. I thought cheer would be something fun to try and I have been doing it ever since!”
She doesn’t regret starting cheer because so many amazing times and memories have arisen for her. Abby, who is a member of the varsity cheer team has had many memorable moments in cheer.
Although there are so many to choose from, she specifically recalls “when we were playing the undefeated Brownsburg Bulldogs at home” during football season. As this was a huge win leading into sectionals McAllister and her team were ecstatic after the win.
Her favorite moment comes from cheering at football games, but all of these different versions of cheer all connect to one another. McAllister also has a lot of thoughts on basketball cheer and competition cheer being interconnected and helping with one another which makes it enjoyable to be a part of both programs.
McAllister explained that “I think that competition cheer, specifically the time out and game day routines have helped me with motions and overall performance on the sidelines during a basketball cheer game!”
McAllister’s experiences with both cheer teams have been amazing, but she has loved certain things the most from cheering for both sports and competition wise. McAllister, when asked what her favorite parts about basketball cheer, said, “we all sit down together and get to just talk and have fun as a team before every game!” For football and competition cheer she highlights that “My team gets to get ready together, play music, and get excited for the game.”
Although these fun moments are worth it, there is a lot of management of time between school, basketball cheer, and competition cheer for McAllister. She “try’s hard to focus in during school in order to leave myself with as little homework as possible.” This allows her to be more open later in the day for practices and other stuff. On Thursday’s McAllister tries to finish all of her work especially during competition and football cheer season because she knows her weekends are packed full.
Along with packed full weekends, McAllister also has different practices and cheer routines to go through for different sports which can make it challenging to get all the skills and everything down. “For sideline cheer you’re creating a few pyramids and practicing chants at the beginning of the season”, McAllister said.
Although basketball cheer is a lot of time and work, for competition cheer, there is an extensive level of practice and preparation. From practices every week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, they also attend nationals in Florida in February.
Abby’s motivation for cheer comes from an HSE cheer alum. when Abby was asked who she looks up to and as a role model she said Bella Pyle, an HSE cheer graduate. She was a senior on varsity McAllister’s freshman year. McAllister pointed out that “Bella has helped me learn what’s really important about cheer and how to create a culture within a team that supports each other on and off the mat.”
With McAllister learning from someone who she sees as “one of the most talented cheerleaders she’s ever met”, she hopes to finish off her junior year and start up the beginning of the end of her high school cheerleading career.
Through cheerleading, McAllister has been impacted majorly. “Cheer has impacted me as it taught me how to be a leader”, McAllister exclaimed. She’ll use these skills in her future, and she always keeps in mind that, “A good leader is one that does things for others, shows up early, and most of all cares about people and how they are doing” she ended off with. In McAllister’s future she plans to continue to cheer in college at either Indiana University or Butler University!
