Milford girls love the thrill of cheering under the lights

Every Friday night, the girls varsity cheer team can be found  shouting for the football team, no matter rain or shine. The cheer team performs the routines they’ve practiced all summer in front of the “Mav Pack”, family members, and the team. Cheering in front of all these people adds a lot of pressure to their performance.

“First, it was kind of scary because if you mess up, everybody sees you, but it gets easier every week, and you get more comfortable in front of the crowd,¨ Junior Courtney Fortin said.

The cheer team feels like they get the crowd more “hype.” They think that cheering in front of the school is exhilarating. Izzy Mogielski, a senior, mentioned how fun it is cheering in front of her friends every Friday night, and seeing them cheer along with her.

The Mav Pack has a big influence on the football team and the cheer team. “When they cheer with us, it makes us cheer harder,” Fortin said, “When they don’t cheer, we feel awkward because it’s never fun cheering alone.¨

Though cheer has brought many positives for the girls, there have also been many injuries this season to some of the girls on the team. Fortin is recovering from a broken hand in three spots.

¨I just came off a two-month injury. Most people think I would be scared to cheer again, but I want to get back at it,¨ she said.

Mogielski just endured a two-month injury as well. ¨I broke my foot doing a stunt at cheer camp over the summer. I was in a boot for 2 months, and I can finally tumble at the pep assembly and the Homecoming game.¨

With practice five days per week, working tirelessly to get their routines down perfect, the quality of their performance is based off how much they practice. The 14 cheer athletes have become very close with each other.

Sideline cheer is wrapping up with only one football game left. With sideline ending, competitive cheer starts up in November. Most of the cheer girls continue on and do competitive cheer for the winter. Sideline cheer is strictly for the football team and performing at games, while competitive is about showing what the team can do at competitions.

“I am going to miss bonding with my team every day at practice,” said Mogielski. “I’m going to miss laughing and making memories as well and cheering my football boys on every Friday night, but competitive cheer is coming up soon and that is a lot of fun,¨