By Chrysa Keenon | Echo
A cheerleading squad will once again return to Taylor's campus next fall.
In the past, cheer teams have started under different passionate leaders.
However, enthusiasm fades and teams dissipate as leaders graduate, according to junior Brielle Tilson. Tilson plans on reinstating a cheer team on campus that she hopes will become a large presence on game days.
The budding cheer squad currently has 12 interested members, ranging from freshmen to juniors. At a call-out meeting on Monday night, women in attendance were presented with a constitution for the team created by Tilson, the squad's cheer captain.
The document stresses commitment and respectability, as the cheer squad will inspire and follow the ways of Christ in their actions. "Professionalism and elite athleticism is required by all Taylor University Cheerleaders in order to provide excellence in the field of cheerleading," the contract states.
"Other teams have lacked passion," Tilson said. "We want to be enthusiastic and not known as a joke." Tilson went on to explain that she got the idea for the team when she saw the cheer squad from St. Francis, a neighboring college in Fort Wayne, over the summer.
While this will not be Taylor's first cheerleading team, Tilson assures it will be the first of its kind in terms of professionalism and legitimacy. According to Tilson, the installment of a cheer squad will not affect Taylor's other dance group, the Poms. "Cheerleading is not the same as dance," Tilson said. "Our routines would not have to be pre-approved like the Poms' dances do."
Freshman and co-founder of the squad Daija Hayes hopes her commitment to the cheer squad as a freshman will enable the club to carry on throughoutall four years of her college career. "I did cheer all through high school, and I really missed practicing," said Hayes. Her goal is to have the cheer squad add more enthusiasm to Taylor's campus.
Tilson expects the squad to begin next fall after a week of cheer camp prior to the beginning of the semester. In future years, she also hopes to institute a mini-cheer camp hosted by the squad in order to raise funds and promote Taylor in the community.
"Cheer is an uplifting type of sport," Hayes said. "We're a family, and we're in it together." Hayes believes having a cheerleading team on campus will spark a revitalized intentional community.
