From performing on the sidelines while other athletes compete to their extreme level of athleticism, the dedication and precision required of cheerleaders often go unnoticed. However, in examining the daily schedule of one of Whitworth’s own, Madison Conley, this intense and focused commitment to being a cheerleader becomes clear.
Training begins early for the Pirate cheerleaders. “A typical day starts with morning weights from 7 to 8 a.m., in which we use a personal training app that’s focused on each girl differently, depending on their stunt positions – so whether you’re a flyer, a base, or a back-spot,” explained Conley.
Following this first morning lift, the Whitworth cheerleaders then attend class throughout the day, averaging anywhere from one to five-plus hours in the classroom daily. This number does not account for outside homework and research hours that need to be squeezed in throughout the day.
“We have practice at 6:30 at night, getting there a little bit early, so that we can roll out our mat and do some dynamic stretching and stretch out what we need to, depending on what we’ll be working on that day,” says Conley, “Once we’re done stretching, we’ll get into our multi-base positions, where we work on our basic stunts and try to expand on what we can do, so kind of working our way up.”
The transition from a morning workout, then to class, and back into evening practice alone requires a lot of cheerleader, as these athletes need to be highly focused in order to spend time in the air, upside down and quite literally catching the falls of others with attuned precision and accuracy.
“After basic stunts, we work on dances and setting our formations for the games, going through what dance music we’re going to use and how we’re going to use it,” Conley said, “From there, we move into pyramids. With pyramids, we usually work ground-up, so we work on hitting the basics of it and then building it to the top. Depending on how elite the stunt is, this usually takes quite a bit of time.”
This extensive, layered rehearsal is essential to the ability of Whitworth’s cheerleaders to perform high-risk stunts without doubt when already exhausted from the rigor of their weekly schedules. These practices are also on top of the arduousness of a non-stop weekend performance schedule.
“For basketball season, we have four games each weekend that there’s basketball at home, starting with our men’s games and then moving to our women’s games,” said Conley,, “We cheer for both while practicing between games and warming up anything that we need to, and the next day, we do it all over again, repeating this routine for each different sport and its individual season.”
Whitworth cheer just announced their 2025-26 squad on April 6, 2025. The new team has 23 females and five males. The team has already started their preparation for next year, and students, faculty and alumni can catch them at the first home football game of the season in the fall of 2025. S’Go Bucs!
