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Connect Canyons
Learning is about making connections, and we invite you to learn and connect with us. Connect Canyons is a show about what we teach in Canyons District, how we teach, and why. We get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great: students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts, too. And we spotlight the “connection makers” — personalities, programs and prospects — we find compelling and inspiring.
Connect Canyons
Charger Cheer Set Sights on Another State Trophy While Dispelling Misconceptions of Their UHSAA-Sanctioned Sport
The students holding pom-poms on the sidelines of Canyons District prep sport competitions are a far cry from the cheerleaders of yesteryear. Gone are the days of cheerleading as a social club or an extracurricular activity to encourage school spirit. Indeed, times have changed. Cheer, to be sure, has entered a new era. As seen on such shows at Netflix’s “Cheer,” students on CSD’s prep competitive cheer squads hit the weights to build strength, flip like Olympic gymnasts, and boast dancing skills of the choreographed squads who back up pop divas in music videos. This week, we talk with the award-winning coach and three members of the CSD cheer squad that has not only won the first-ever state championships in competitive cheer — but has made quite a splash nationally for the team’s tumbling skills, performing ability, and mental toughness. Corner Canyon’s cheer squad, led by Coach Whitney Lunt, are not just Instagram stars with 66,000 followers, but an elite force that is advancing the artistry and athleticism of a growing sport.
00:00 Introduction to Modern Cheerleading
01:16 Meet the Corner Canyon Cheer Squad
01:50 The Evolution and Role of Cheerleading
03:01 Personal Stories and Challenges
07:38 Mental and Physical Strength in Cheer
14:27 Understanding Cheer Terminology and Roles
17:37 Competition Categories and Scoring
19:45 The Rewards and Challenges of Cheerleading
22:48 Conclusion and Best Wishes
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by Canyons School District. This is a show about what we teach, how we teach and why we get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more. We meet national experts too. Learning is about making connections, so connect with us.
Speaker 3:The students holding pom-poms on the sidelines of Canyons District prep sport competitions are a far cry from the cheerleaders of yesteryear. Gone are the days of cheerleading as a social club or an extracurricular to encourage school spirit. Yes, times have changed. The students on competitive cheer squads hit the weights like defensive linemen, have the stamina of wrestlers, flip, leap and twist like Olympic gymnasts and boast the dancing skills rivaling the choreographed squads who back up pop divas in music videos. This much is sure. Today's version of cheer requires vast amounts of skills, strength, performing ability and mental toughness. Here in Utah it's become a sanctioned sport of the Utah High School Activities Association, and Canyons is home to the team that has won the first two state UHSAA championships. And the Corner Canyon Chargers have their sights set on another title.
Speaker 3:I'm Jeff Haney and this week, on Connect Canyons, we're talking competitive cheer, dispelling notions, addressing the risks and physical demands and getting to the heart of what makes cheer well cheer. And today we're here with six-time state champion, three-time national champions, the Corner Canyon Cheer Squad. We're here with the coach, whitney Lunt, and students, seniors and captains of this year's squad, alicia Wong Hi, alicia Hi and Reagan Alleman, hello. And Ava Johnson Hi, alicia Hi and Reagan Alleman, hello. And Ava Johnson Hi. I'm so glad that you came to talk to me about your season and I truly believe that cheer competitive cheer is one of the hardest sports for high school students today. Now, the role of a cheerleader has changed throughout the year, but, as you guys see it, what is the main role of cheer at a school today, whitney?
Speaker 4:Well, I think from a coaching perspective, if we even look at when Corner Canyon opened 12 years ago, our main purpose was just to support all of the teams and programs at the school and we competed on the side, but nobody cared or took it seriously. All they cared about is if we were at games. So watching it change over the years to now we are also a sport and competing is part of our role has really upped the athleticism of the sport and, like what you have to be able to do to do it, cheering on the sidelines is the easy part of our job. The true athletic talent comes from the competition, so for that to now be a part of it has really made cheerleading more respected and athletic.
Speaker 3:And Alicia, what do you think? What is the main role of cheer at a school?
Speaker 5:I think definitely the main role is to invite school spirit, but also not just coming from us, but also to bring crowd involvement and let them also be a part of that, just to help them have that high school experience, and also to encourage and support the athletes in what they do.
Speaker 3:So Reagan, tell me this what made you want to be in cheer? Because you've been on the squad for three, four years, four years, yeah. So what made you want to be in cheer?
Speaker 2:Growing up, I was the kid who did pretty much every sport. I did soccer, I did tumbling, I did dance, I tried volleyball and basketball and I did pretty much all of it. And when I got into I think it was middle school, I started to realize, like, how much I love tumbling and I was like, wait, I really want to kind of incorporate this into something you know. And when I found out about the program that corn and candy cheer had and the excellence that they really showed and displayed, I knew that that's something that I wanted to do. And so from that point on, when I was I think I was 12, I worked really hard and it was. It was hard. I had to overcome a lot of injuries. I broke my back, I had skin cancer, but there was nothing that was going to stop me.
Speaker 3:Okay, stop for a second. You broke your back. Yeah, tell us about that.
Speaker 2:So, like I said, I was kind of involved in a lot of sports and at this time when I first started cheer, I was still running track, I was still doing competitive soccer, I was doing competitive cheer and over time I kind of just started to develop some back issues and I didn't really I kind of just pushed it aside at first because I was like, oh, whatever, like all cheerleaders have back problems, you know, especially at the level that I was at, because I'd been tumbling my whole life, I was doing pretty advanced tumbling passes, I I kind of just push it aside. But it got to a point where it got so bad that I actually wasn't even able to get out of bed. And so I eventually I went to the doctor and I had an x-ray and turns out that I had broken my back. And it was really discouraging because I had a lot of doctors tell me that I should get surgery and I should never cheer again. And at that point it was crushing.
Speaker 2:It was horrible because at that point that's when I decided that cheer was the thing that I loved the most and I didn't want to let something like that get in my way, especially when I had these big dreams and goals of cheering in high school, at Corner Canyon, and maybe even further on into my collegiate career.
Speaker 2:But like so I didn't really want that to kind of set me back and so I did everything I could. I I took core strengthening classes to try to counter that. I was in a back brace for months all the time. I actually still sleep in it this to this day, for six years now, but it's, you know, it's been worth it, because I know, like this is kind of goes in all areas of life, especially with cheerleading. Like once you have a goal and you're committed to it whether it be winning state, which we have tomorrow, or nationals in a few weeks, or even coming back from an injury or getting good grades or anything once you have a goal and you're determined to, you're determined to determine to achieve that like there's nothing that's going to stop you.
Speaker 3:Now, ava, to kind of dovetail off of that answer that Reagan just gave how many dance classes and tumbling classes do you think somebody needs to take to be on a competitive cheer squad like Corner Canyon? I mean, you truly do have a tradition of excellence, and so you have to have kind of a baseline of skills just to be considered, and then, even if you have just the minimum amount of skills to be considered, you have to raise that level for your competitions. So what did you do to prepare? Did you take dance? Did you take tumbling? What did you do in order to be prepared to try out for, and become a part of, corner Canyon's cheer squad?
Speaker 6:So growing up I did gymnastics for 13 years before I joined the cheer team. I did it for a long time not knowing that I wanted to join cheer. And then when I got to high school, like I always saw the program, like I went to my brother's football games, saw them on the sidelines, I always thought it looked fun, but I never really saw myself doing it. And then it came to the point where I started to learn more about their program and I decided to like go to the tryout meeting, look into trying out, and I found out just how much that you had to have to make the team. And so I mean I've, I've always tumbled for a long time.
Speaker 6:So going into tumbling from gymnastics to cheer, I mean you're going from a spring floor to a dead floor, which is very different for tumbling because it takes away a lot of your power that you have, that you have to build yourself. And so going into tryouts, I mean I really had to work to get my tumbling on the dead mat because it was very different. I mean I really had to work to get my tumbling on the dead mat because it was very different. And so I think that if joining a program like corner cane is something that someone wants like. It does take lots of time and preparation to get to where you want to be. I mean, we're still. We tumble, we go to classes every single week, we tumble on the daily just for our routine and it does take a lot of preparation, but it definitely is worth it and it is just a process that you have to go through.
Speaker 3:So I hear from a lot of you that it's been a positive experience, but I'm sure that there are misconceptions about being a cheerleader. Even the word cheerleader is something that has changed in recent years. This is about competitive cheer, not necessarily being a cheer leader. So when you tell us what is the biggest misconception about being in cheer? Everybody laughs, we know they've talked about this in the past.
Speaker 4:So interesting because even I'm a teacher at the high school and every year at some point the kids ask me about cheer or like, how do they judge cheer, how do you even win cheer? Because people think all you do in cheerleading is stand on the sidelines and wave your pom-poms around and like, look cute in your cheer uniform and then I'll show my students. I actually showed kids today a video because kid asked about it and then their brains explode because they had no idea what it is that we actually do. So I think that the biggest misconception is just that they're not super athletic. You don't really need a lot of talent to do it. It's something you can just kind of walk into and do on the side, when in reality every kid we've had on our team has had years of training before coming to us to even make them eligible to be a part of the team.
Speaker 3:And Alicia, what do you think? What is the biggest misconception among your peers about being in chair?
Speaker 5:So what I've heard from a lot of people, including members from my own family, is that they think cheerleading is just a bunch of frou-frou and fluff, like they have no idea what we do outside of the sidelines and cheering at games. And really even the football boys have mentioned in our summer practices that our practices are very hard and to be able to maintain the and to gain the physical strength just to do a routine, it takes so much work and we do things including running the mile and weightlifting for an hour and running bleachers and a lot of conditioning just to stay in shape throughout the season. And I have done other sports, including soccer and basketball and other things, but cheer is just a whole other thing and it takes so much physical strength just to do one routine of two and a half minutes, and that two and a half minutes is very, very difficult.
Speaker 3:Now, Reagan, you talked about physical strength. What about mental strength? Because you do incredibly challenging stunts and one little bobble and it all comes down. How does the team think about strengthening that mental capacity that, yes, we're going to nail this. Yes, we're going to win. Yes, we're taking a risk here because it's more challenging than anything we've done in the past, but we can do it? How have the coaches, how have your teammates worked together on strengthening that mental idea that we're going to do this?
Speaker 2:For me. Mental strength, and cheerleading especially, is an especially important topic to me because obviously it's not easy. It's not easy physically, as Alicia was saying, but it's especially not easy mentally.
Speaker 3:And even in past years, like last year, I struggled mentally with maybe my tumbling or a few stunts, and it's really hard and it's really draining, especially when you Do you ever get in your head like you miss it once, and then you miss it twice, and then you miss it three times and then all of a sudden, you just can't do it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, in fact. In fact, that's actually what happened to me in my tumbling last season. There was nothing really that happened, like I never fell on my tumbling passes, but they're just kind of. It came to a point where I got in my head so much that it just got to a point where I couldn't do it and I like felt like I couldn't do it and it was really stressful and it was a stressed out and I would have.
Speaker 2:I'm lucky to be part of such a great program with coaches and teammates that would always encourage me and be like look like, you've got this, you've got beautiful tumbling like we know you can do this.
Speaker 2:The team trusts you, the coaches trust you.
Speaker 2:But it was still very hard on me and it was.
Speaker 2:It was a struggle but eventually, as I came to focus on my love for cheer and the confidence that it gave me when I was able to execute my skills, as I was able to shift my focus from the stress that I felt to the, to the ability and the like, the confidence that I had and the enjoyment that I found while doing it, while doing my tumbling passes and doing my stunts, that's when I became a much stronger base. That's when my tumbling all came back and as much as it, as much as it sucked at the time, I actually think it's something that's really helped me, especially this season. We've had a few girls that have also struggled with the similar things as me, like they've struggled with their tumbling, or maybe they've struggled with their stunts and struggled with maybe like they don't feel positive or like they just don't feel like they're enjoying themselves at practice. And I feel like, because I've personally overcome those challenges with mental strength and cheer, I've been able to use that and use my experience to be able to be there for my teammates.
Speaker 3:So Whitney.
Speaker 4:Well, and I think and they would probably laugh, but I would say we do some sort of mental discussion or training every single day at practice and sometimes they turn into hour long talks which at the time can feel like you know you're wasting practice time when you could be doing skills. But they're going to have the skills, they're trained to do the skills, but if they can't mentally check in, it doesn't matter how well they're trained. And so I would say we do some type of mental training pretty much every single practice, or even talking about okay, this is how we approach things, this is how we need to think about things in the moment. So we do it a lot, I think also, like we do mental training every day.
Speaker 6:We do those exercises, but also practices themselves are mental training. I feel like because we do so many routines, we run through so many sections and with that obviously you're not going to hit every single time and with that it can be very mentally tough to pick yourself back up over and over again, to keep going. And so I think being able to build that mental toughness and we have really built that as a team this year to pick yourself right back up and know that it's all part of the process and you just have to keep picking yourself up, even during those hard times.
Speaker 2:Another tradition that we have as a team that I really like is we always have the upperclassmen read a certain mental training book every year. Usually we read it in the summer, kind of before a camp or something, and all the upperclassmen kind of like take notes from the books that we read. And obviously, as a senior, I've read the book twice. It's been a different book each time. But something that I've really gained from that is confidence. You know, because in cheerleading, like you were saying, it's mentally hard, it's physically hard, but once you have that confidence, you show that confidence, you're really unstoppable. There's going to be your ups and downs in practices and in competitions and even games, but if you can really show the confidence that you have and you've been able to build through all your years of training and all the practices that you've had, then that's when you reach the top.
Speaker 3:So you said something. Well, one of you said something that I thought was fascinating. I think it was you, reagan. You said confidence in being a base. That's jargon and for the uninitiated, they may not necessarily know what the words base or flyer would be. So, whitney, take a second and talk about some of that jargon. What is a base, what is a flyer, what makes up your team and how they contribute to the routine?
Speaker 4:So, realistically, we kind of have five roles of people on the team you have. They're called main bases and side bases, but they're on either side of the stunt. They are the people who hold the girls in the air. There's also a back spot behind. So there's three of them all together who hold the flyer or sometimes they call them top girls up into the air. So you have those four positions, and then we also have three other people on the mat who are tumblers. So they may not necessarily stunt, but while the stunts are going on they're doing those extra tumbling passes and things to give us kind of that extra pizzazz. And so every person on our team fills one of those five roles. They either a main base, a side base, a back back spot, a flyer or a tumbler.
Speaker 3:So you tumbled for 13 years? Okay, so for those who will be watching, describe your tumbling pass. I imagine it's like a round off to a back handspring, to a back tuck. Tell us what you do.
Speaker 6:So my tumbling in this routine, I do a round off back handspring full and then tell us what you do. So my tumbling in this routine, I do a round-off back handspring full.
Speaker 3:And then tell us what that is For somebody who doesn't know gymnastics. What's a full?
Speaker 6:A full is you're doing basically a backflip with a twist and landing back on your feet and then the round-off back handspring before is you're running and you put your hands on the ground, flip your legs over and then you do a flip with your hands on the ground going into the flip without your hands in a twist, and I imagine for you right now that's not incredibly challenging.
Speaker 6:It can be challenging when it comes to routine. When you're in that two-and-a-half-minute routine of using your endurance and strength the entire time, the tumbling pass itself has become easier because I've done it for so many years. But when you put it in a routine it definitely does change the difficulty of that.
Speaker 3:Is that a difficult pass. Do most squads put that in their routine?
Speaker 6:Not many squads have. Well, some do, but we do have a lot of foals on our team.
Speaker 4:So and I say this with all the humbleness that I can muster, there is nobody in the United States of America that tumbles like Corner Canyon. Cheer.
Speaker 3:So the humbleness of a six-time state champion, three-time national champion coach, yes, I love that.
Speaker 4:We have 20. At nationals. We will have 23 people on mat. 14 of them do standing handsprings into foals. 15 out of the 23 do running handsprings into foals. Plus they all throw standing tucks. And we have specialty passes throughout when we go to Nationals. Even at the National Championships, nobody tumbles like Corner Canyon Cheer.
Speaker 3:The state competition is just hours away when we record this. Now, for those who are new to competitive cheer, and as you explained that, you showed some of the video to some of your classes and they were surprised at what you all did for your competitions explain the categories in which you compete. So, if I understand, there's there's a show category, right? And is there a dance coded category as well? Tell us about the categories. There's three in all and you're going to have to compete in those three, so explain what it is that you have to do in all three of those categories.
Speaker 4:So in Utah the way that you win a state championship is you compete a show or traditional routine, which is the two minute and 30 seconds. That you win a state championship is you compete a show or traditional routine, which is the two minute and 30 seconds that you jump, you dance, you stunt, you tumble, you literally do everything in that two minutes and 30 seconds. That is 70% of your total score at the state championships. Then they have game day categories which are supposed to simulate more what you would do on the sidelines at a game. For that you have to do a game day cheer, which is about 45 seconds to a minute, which is going to be 15%, and then you have to do a band dance, which will be another 15%. So overall your game day sections are worth 30% of your final score. Show is 70, and they add that together to determine who will win the state championship so, alicia, how do you get points?
Speaker 3:how do you lose points? So is it if you fall during a tumbling pass or fall from a stunt?
Speaker 5:so basically how it works is all teams start with like a raw score or like your potential score, based on how difficult your initial routine is, but it's scored out of 100 and you don't really gain points. You only lose points from that 100 based on your execution and the different sections, which includes like tumbling, stunting, your dance and everything, and everything is scored and not everything is like weighted evenly in the score. The cheer is worth a lot more, so it's so vital you do very well in that.
Speaker 3:So, Ava, what's the hardest thing about being in cheer?
Speaker 6:I think the hardest thing about being in cheer is the fact that we are doing it year-round.
Speaker 6:I mean we have so many different parts of the season that they each have their challenges.
Speaker 6:I mean spring practices, when you first try out, you're with a new team, you're just getting back into the swing of things after you had a competition season and that's always hard with teaching the new girls the just the ways of corner canyon.
Speaker 6:And then you have summer practices, which we are outside every day at 6 am doing four hours of practice every day, which can get really hard when I mean your friends are not, they're sleeping in and you're getting up at 6 am to work your butt off. But with that I mean, comes a lot of reward. I mean we continue that throughout the summer and then we have the fall where we're working half times, we're working our comp routines and we're cheering all the games and it can get really busy. But I think that it is hard but it comes with a lot of reward and it is really fun because I mean you're with the people you love, you're with your best friends, and so the hardest part really can be just I I mean the amount of time you put into it, but it really is just the best thing, Regan.
Speaker 3:what's the best thing about being a cheer?
Speaker 2:Ava kind of touched on this a little bit but I really think that the best thing about being a cheer is all the friendships that you make. You know, because there's some girls on the team where maybe they're in different grades or maybe they're in different friend groups that you wouldn't really hang out with outside of cheer. But when you get to cheer and you spend all your time with them, you really create such a strong bond with 36 different girls and they become. They become the people that truly understand, because a lot of times even your other friends or, like I don't know, maybe your family members won't really understand what cheer is like and the difficulty of it. But at the end of the day it's the 36 girls that you have by your side that you know will always be with you and you have their back and they have your back and it truly is a relationship like no other.
Speaker 3:And coach. What's the best thing about dedicating your life to a team for an entire year Not just a season, but an entire year on the sidelines and in competition?
Speaker 4:You can't ask me questions like this because I will cry. Everybody knows this. You can't ask me these questions. I think the most rewarding thing is seeing the growth in them, genuinely seeing that they are capable of so much more than they thought. It's our job to push them past their limits and at times they hate us I know every single one of them at one time or another has hated me but when you see them break through those walls and accomplish something that they've never thought they could do before, that to me, is the best part. And seeing a kid going from being a freshman to a senior and the change in them, not only as athletes but as human beings, and the strength and resilience that they've gained, that's the journey for me that matters, whether we win or lose, because some of my favorite years have been years that we haven't won, and it's just them becoming great humans and athletes.
Speaker 3:So tomorrow night is the state competition. Corner Canyon Chargers will be competing. They'll be on the floor. Tomorrow night is the state competition. Corner Canyon Chargers will be competing. They'll be on the floor tomorrow night. It's at Utah Valley University. We wish you all the luck in the world. Hashtag Go Chargers. Congratulations on a fantastic season so far. We are cheering for you. We are your biggest cheerleaders. Thank you so much for listening. This is Jeff Haney, Connect Canyon.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect Canyons. Connect with us on Twitter, facebook or Instagram at Canyons District or on our website, canyonsdistrictorg.
