It’s a groggy morning, you’re in your second period class listening to the teacher take attendance. The loud speaker goes off but you continue doing your work until an announcement catches your ear. The announcements state that a new club called the school spirit club has been created, and it continues to state details about the club. You don’t put in much attention to the announcement until you keep hearing the same details about this club every single day.
This was the case for Jovianna Roopchand, a member of the School Spirit Club.
“So, I found out about the School Spirit club through the announcements and my global teacher happened to be the cheer coach, so I went to her for further questions and she let me know when it was being held and where,” said Roopchand.
Roopchand’s global teacher turned out to be Mrs. Allen who not only is a global teacher but also is the Cheer Program Supervisor. She coaches the School Spirit Club and the Cheerleading team.
“My first year at Francis Lewis, I became friends with the teacher who was doing cheer,” said Mrs. Allen. One time, we were just talking and I said ‘Oh yeah, I did a couple years of cheer in college, football cheer,’ and so she said, ‘Oh come down, come help out.’ So, I started doing that.”
Mrs. Allen came up with the idea of School Spirit Club after realizing how limited the number of spots in the competition team was; she wanted to make cheer available to all.
“This was a way I came up with last spring to try to incorporate both, what I’m calling now, “Competition team” and allowing people to learn so that when it comes time for tryouts in June they have a better understanding of what cheerleading is and built their skillset,” said Mrs. Allen. “Just a way to incorporate school spirit throughout the year and incorporate as many people as we can, because it’s 25 students allowed in competition team and 4,000 students, that’s a lot of kids who don’t get to be included.”
The School Spirit club teaches a multitude of activities to increase the school spirit in students and members.
“We learn sideline dances, cheers for basketball games, and eventually the club will learn how to stunt, which is the main part of cheerleading,” said Cynthia Sosa, Cheer Team and School Spirit Club manager. “This club basically is to unite anyone in the school community who really loves dance and just having fun to basically learn cheers and have school spirit.”
These cheers are very unique and some incorporate moves from the dance program. Seniors in the dance program that are a part of cheer are actively involved in helping create the choreography and choose the music.
“The cheers, some of them have been here and are part of the program the previous coach came up with, and some of them I introduced,” said Coach Allen. “I had to modify some of them because they’re from when I did football cheer. Some of them we’ve come up with together over the years, last year we introduced a cheer where it’s more of step moves,”
Although the School Spirit Club and Competitive Cheer team meet at the same time and do highly similar things, there are many differences between them. Mrs. Allen explains that the cheer team focuses on getting ready for competitions and performances, while the club focuses on learning how to cheer and ease into performances.
“School Spirit Club is no experience required, you don’t have to perform and if you kinda just want to come and learn about cheer, that’s great,” said Mrs. Allen. “If you want to do sideline cheers at a game but you don’t want to stand in the middle of the court and perform, that’s great as well.”
Many club members join the School Spirit Club with no prior experience to cheer, so the club is the start of their experience with cheer and the atmosphere surrounding cheer.
“I really enjoy how they teach the basics and they go through everything slowly so that you can understand what you’re doing and what each motion is called,” said Roopchand. “I also love how welcoming it is, as well as how if you can’t do one thing or you don’t wanna do one thing there’s still something else you can do, so it’s enjoyable for all.”
Not only do club members enjoy this club but also cheerleaders have stated that they’ve had a great time in the club.
The School Spirit Club is fun, entertaining, and about expressing your moves and your love to cheer,” exclaimed Kayla Yam, a member of the cheer team.
Some members of the club have even stated that their wellbeing at school has improved from joining the club.
“I used to usually be very tired in school but now that I have cheerleading, I’m not that tired anymore,” said Zoe King, a member of the School Spirit Club.
The School Spirit Club not only teaches members cheerleading but also valuable skills. Jovianna states that through joining the club you can learn to be resilient as well as gain physical strength.
Cynthia adds on by saying, “It helps you to become close with a lot of your peers. It helps you learn skills like dance and even leadership like you learn how to take command of a group and learn how to really project your voice. It’s really just fun for all these people who joined.”
Mrs. Allen uses the School Spirit Club to spread a sense of community and pride throughout the school, and that’s exactly what is happening.
“I think this club has ignited my school spirit even more and it really amplified it because now that I’m in cheer I feel like I have the responsibility to spread school spirit for Francis Lewis,” said Roopchand. “I myself am a cheerleader so I want to be able to encourage other people as well.”
