RBHS senior Grace Reid is a positive and trustful competitive cheerleader at her local gym, Eagle Elite. She stays organized in order to make sure she is balancing her school work and cheer, while still maintaining good grades. Reid talks about how her experience with cheer has benefited her life and has created many friendships.
“Cheer has impacted my life in a very positive way, and it’s taught me to be disciplined, how to work with others and how to work hard for what you want,” Reid said. “ It taught me great teamwork skills and has brought me some of my best friends.”
Q: How long have you cheered for, and where?
A: “I have cheered for 11 years, and I’m currently at Eagle Elite, Camo and API.”
Q: How has cheer made you feel?
A: “Cheer gives me a sense of belonging and gives me a place where I feel like I can work hard, be confident and really enjoy my community. Cheer gives me something that I can put all my energy into and see a lot of progress.”
Q: How would you describe cheer to someone?
A: “It’s a mix of stunting, tumbling and performing. But it’s also a lot about teamwork, trusting your teammates and knowing that they’re there for you no matter what.”
Q: What’s your favorite part of cheer, and what role do you play in cheer?
A: “My favorite part of cheer routines is probably stunting because I like stunts a lot and working with my teammates, and I’m in the back spot.”
Q: You talked about building trust [so] how do you build trust when you’re at cheer?
A: “I feel like it’s more of just doing our things over and over and over again until we get it right. It’s knowing that we’re not going to give up on our teammates no matter what.”
Q: What’s something you would tell your freshman self?
A: “I would tell my freshman self to relax, take things slow, don’t take anything for granted and go to as many sporting events as possible because I feel like that’s the way that you get really good with being with your friends and getting involved within the school.”
Q: What are some ways you try to stay organized?
A: “I try to write every assignment down on a to-do list or something. That way, I have [what I need to do] written down on paper. Then, I have a calendar in my phone [where] I put [down] all of my cheer stuff and all of my school stuff so that way I don’t miss events.”
Q: Has there been a specific teacher during your high school years that you felt benefited you and helped you the most?
A: “I feel like Mr. G[ilberto] helped me the most [because] I feel like math was always something that I was really good at until junior year. I don’t know why, but I just started struggling with it, and he would help me all the time [with math] whenever he could before school or after school or during AUT. I feel like junior year is a big, crazy year. So I feel like he came here [at] the perfect time to help me with everything.”
Q: How has cheer impacted your life in a positive or negative way? If so, how and why?
A: “Cheer has impacted my life in a very positive way [because] it’s taught me to be disciplined, how to work with others and how to work hard for what you want. It’s taught me great teamwork skills and has brought me some of my best friends.”
Q: How would you describe the cheer community to people who may not know how the cheer community is?
A: “The community is pretty close. You spend a lot of time together and it just becomes your close, tight-knit group of people. Even after like two weeks of practicing with people, you really do get really close with them.”
Q: What are some pre-competition things you like to do before you go out and compete?
A: “I have a lot of superstitions. I always have to sleep in my lucky pajamas, I have to get Starbucks in the morning, I have to wear the same ponytails in my hair, and I have to wear the same bobby pins. I have to wear the same bands around my shoes, and then whenever we step out, I have to do all my handshakes in the same order with my teammates. Before I go out, I always hold my walkout partner’s hand and squeeze it three times before we go on. Once we get on the floor, I jump up and down three times, wipe my hands and then wipe my shoes.”
Q: Out of all the things you do before a pre-competition, which one do you think is your favorite and works the best?
A: “I think my favorite is my handshakes with my teammates because I feel like it really helps us get connected before we get on the floor and it just helps us all be on the same page.”
Q: Was there any obstacle you had to overcome in cheer or school and how [did] you overcome it?
A: “I’ve had to switch gyms twice for cheer, and it was pretty hard. But also, I just had to remember that it was a new journey starting, and although I was leaving something, I was also starting something new and it was going to be good. [I] just had to have a positive attitude on it.”
Q: Have you had any memory throughout your cheer experience that was your favorite and really stood out to you?
A: “I feel like this year as a whole, my senior year, has been my favorite just because it’s like I’ve known all year that it was all coming to an end, so I kind of had a different outlook on it. Even though it was a hard practice, [knowing that] one day I’m going to miss this [helped me to] just be grateful, be present and be in [the] moment for things.”
Q: How many competitions do you usually have per season?
A: “I’d say we probably have six competitions a season.”
Q: Which competition is your favorite?
A: “My favorite is Worlds in Florida because it’s really fun, and you have to get a bid to go to that competition, so it just shows that you guys, you and your team, have worked really hard to get there. It’s also the last competition of the year. It’s like you get to leave it on a good note and you’re in Florida with your best friends. So it’s just really fun.”
Q: Who inspired you or what inspired you to cheer?
A: “I always looked up to the big name gyms and the big cheerleaders in the cheer world. That’s what inspired me to initially start.”
Q: Is there any specific cheerleader that you think really inspired you to start cheer?
A: “Ryan Cummings is a really famous cheerleader. I’d say her, Gabi Butler and Gabi Fluor are the ones who inspired me to start.”
Q: Do you plan [on doing] cheer in college?
A: “I don’t plan to cheer at least my freshman year just because I want to take a year just to get used to college and how that life is. I feel like my body needs a break, but I am not saying that I would never cheer again. I’m open to cheering later on in college.”
Q: If you would cheer in college, what’s a college you would really like to cheer at?
A: “Probably Mizzou because their program is really good, and it’s close to home. I feel like that would probably just be the best option.”
