Katelyn McLean | Sports Editor
Whitworth cheer held its tryouts for the 2022-2023 squad on April 9th and 10th to select a new squad for the upcoming school year.
Tryouts started with stunting and then moved to learning the routine to the Whitworth fight song. After that, the participants moved to the track, where they did a timed mile. Day one of tryouts concluded with other fitness tests like push-ups and planks. Finally, the participants finished the tryouts by learning choreography.
Incoming senior captain Ally Flattum was one of the seniors helping model the fight song at the front of the group.
“I mean, every year, they always emphasize that everyone’s spot is always up for grabs. They don’t want anyone to be complacent. So, even though I feel confident in my abilities and my skill, I’m coming out to just prove that I deserve to be a captain again, and I just really want to focus on mentoring everyone because there’s a lot of people who have more years to come but this is my last year, so I just want to leave an impact on this program as much as I can,” Flattum said.
Incoming freshman Kailey Floyd was a cheerleader in high school and wanted a way to get plugged into the Whitworth community.
“I was on cheer team at my high school. I made so many memories and it was a lot of fun, so I wanted to be a part of something more than just being a student,” Floyd said. “When I found out they were having tryouts, I was excited.”
According to second-year head coach Hailey Elkin, drive and work ethic are some of the most important qualities in a candidate.
“I would say passion is the number one thing I look for. You can tell that they’re driven [and] they’re hardworking. I feel like skill is something that you can teach when you’re in the program, but you really can’t teach that drive and that work ethic and that excitement to be on the team,” Elkin said.
There were 32 participants registered for tryouts, and 18 were selected to make the team. The cheer team will have several events over the summer such as fundraisers and start practicing when the other fall sport athletes report to campus.