High School Traditions....what Are Yours?

[CoachG]

This is my first year coaching high school cheerleading. I love sports and all of the excitement that goes along with cheering on the team. I love when schools have special traditions and I think it's a great way to build school spirit. I've been to lots of football and basketball games at the school that I am coaching for, but no tradition sticks out in my mind. I don't know if that's because they don't have them or because I was so involved in the game that I didn't notice. Either way, one of my goals this year is to establish/strengthen game traditions. I am having a team meeting to talk about what traditions are in place and what we can do to make them better. So, what traditions does your cheer squad (and fans) have for:

-the National Anthem
-Kick-Off
-First Downs
-Touch Downs
-Field Goals
-Free Throws
-3 pointers
-Beginning of the 4th Quarter
-Victory

...or any other times? I can't wait to hear all of the great ideas!

 

[JMW]

Push ups for every score!

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[ohar0021]

At the school I used to coach at we ran flags across the field when the football team ran out of their tunnel. We also ran the flags on the track in front of the stands whenever we scored and did pushups - one for every point on the score board. The kids also liked to tumble down the track. We put up extentions the second time through the school song and the flyers helped lead the spell out. Between the 3rd & 4th quarter we had a choreographed dance to the song the student section picked out for the year. If we won, we would make a tunnel off the field for the football team to walk through. National anthems just had the girls and guys in a single file line with 1 hand behind their back and the other on their heart. Kick offs we jumped around, shook poms & megs above our heads and were loud.

 

[cheerforeverever]

-The National Anthem:
All of the girls stand in a line, angled towards wherever the flag is, right hand over heart, left hand behind back. Eyes do not move from the flag until music ends (no heads turning around or girls chatting to one another. looks more uniform & professional to the school)

-Kick-Off (both at start of the game & after half time):
The girls would build a prep facing the field (libs for varsity), once the boys were walking to their starting positions. Everyone (including the crowd) would start to yell "Aeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" until the actual kick of the ball, in which everyone would yell the school mascot name. Example: "Aeeeeeeeeeey (pause for kick of ball) Mustangs!". Different schools in our area did similar things, but yelled "Go Cougars" or something at the end.
. The girls would yell this & as the kicker got close to the ball they would turn their stunt to face the crowd (over flyer's left shoulder), then hit a high V when the school mascot name was said.
*Side note: we had elevated stands, so extended stunts did not block views of the field*
Sometimes these stunts would have to be held a long time, so varsity got real stable at holding 1 leg stunts haha. Also, dropping stunts was not acceptable (as each squad was completely capable of their designated kick off stunt per their stunting level). I can't think of a time where one ever fell, as the girls were too embarrassed to drop in front of the crowd, or too scared that they'd have to do extra conditioning next practice. There were a couple times where people were injured on Varsity or sick, etc. etc., so we had to put odd stunt pairings together & had the team just do preps rather than libs in order for all stunts to be 100 percent fool proof stable however.

-Touch Downs:
The girls would follow the game down the field once a team was close to the endzone. Therefore, they would usually tumble or spirit back to the center of the track (where they stand for most of the game to crowdlead) after a score. If our team scored & the fight song was played, they would of course do the fight song motions first.

-Victory:
School song would be played. The girls would get in a line, right foot behind & left foot in front (so all of the girls feet are woven together sort of) with arms behind the people next to them's backs. Then they would all sway in a line back and forth, (alternating bending of a knee). There was a part towards the end of the song where everyone would hold up how many years they still had until graduation (seniors held up a no.1 sign, juniors a peace sign (2 fingers), sophomores 3, freshmen 4).

 

[BuegeSmalls]

Let's see if I can remember what we did in high school lol

National Anthem: Stand in a line, right hand over your heart, left hand on the shoulder of the girl in front of you. After "land of the free" a football captain would yell "put 'em up" and they would raise their helmets and we would raise our poms.

Kickoff: Nothing super special that I can remember.

Touchdown: Back handspring ripple.

Victory: We did a chant with the student section. Everyone would be sitting down and one leader in the student section would yell something and everyone else would stand and point and yell back. It went like this:

Leader: Isn't that the score board?
Crowd: *stands and points at scoreboard* Yes that is the score board!
Leader: Isn't that the referee?
Crowd: *stands & points at ref* Yes that is the referee!
Leader: Isn't that the losing team?
Crowd: *stands & points at other team* Yes that is the losing team!
Leader: Isn't that the winning team?
Crowd: *stands & points at our team*: Yes that is the winning team!
Leader: Scoreboard!
Crowd: Scoreboard!
Leader: Referee!
Crowd: Referee!
Leader: Losing team!
Crowd: Losing team!
Leader: Winning team!
Crowd: Winning team!
Then everyone goes crazy.


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[emma_tuttle]

National anthem: right hand in a broken T, left hand behind back
Touchdown: as many pushups as we have points (ex: boys get a touchdown and 2 point conversion. 8 points, 8 pushups. We run back down to where we cheer. Another touchdown. This time a 1-point conversion. 15 points, 15 pushups. We do that until we get to 30 points. Then we do jumping jacks) also, we have one person run down with a flag and wave the flag instead of doing pushups or jumping jacks
Free throws: we stand with hands in a touchdown doing spirit fingers, then after we do this clap pattern thing that's hard to explain, and if they don't make it, we do the pattern and clean but if they do make it, during the free throw one of the captains determines what we do. We do jumps or we spirit
3 pointers: we don't do anything special, but for every 3 someone in the back row puts up a laminated paper that says "that's a 3" and the 3 basically takes up the whole page and we alternate orange and blue (our colors)
Hope this helped! Good luck with your squad!

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[Velchs]

-the National Anthem
I'm pretty sure the cheerleader way of the "right hand over your heart" is you put it sideways instead of flat over your chest. Correct me if I'm wrong. After the national anthem/school anthem is finished and they say let the game begin we start to spirit towards the crowd

-Kick-Off
Spirit towards the crowd

-First Downs
Nothing special. Probably a chant or something

-Touch Downs
Push-ups on the score number only if the band isn't playing their instruments which is 3rd quarter or when their not at away games. If the band is there we have a victory dance!

-Field Goals
Nothing special

-Free Throws
Nothing special

-3 pointers
Nothing special

-Beginning of the 4th Quarter
Spirit towards the crowd

-Victory
We have the victory dance one last time. Then we do the cheer:
G -double O-D J-O-B good job, good job, good job big c which we also say at every game at the end no matter the outcome

Other traditions
We have pink bows and shoe laces for all October games
In our victory dance we have a cheer we say along while we dance that they have been saying forever
We have tradition band dances that never change and have been there for a long time
We do a huddle and have a chant to say after we say our good job cheer
At senior night all the seniors go in a prep and underclass men make signs that spell out their name. They also do a poster with all their cheer memories for them and they get a flower from the team
Pep ralley before field day at school




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[MHSCheercoach]

When I started coaching, we wanted something special for when the boys made a basket so we came up with two different sayings depending on if they hit a 2 or a 3. For example: a 2 is "hoop it up, hoop it up, Mohawks for 2" a 3 is "Mohawks do it again, Mohawks let's win" and we have motions to go with them. it's simple but it keeps all the cheerleaders equally involved after a basket as opposed to some sparkling their hearts out and others just standing there.

 

[AScheer]

This is my first year coaching high school cheerleading. I love sports and all of the excitement that goes along with cheering on the team. I love when schools have special traditions and I think it's a great way to build school spirit. I've been to lots of football and basketball games at the school that I am coaching for, but no tradition sticks out in my mind. I don't know if that's because they don't have them or because I was so involved in the game that I didn't notice. Either way, one of my goals this year is to establish/strengthen game traditions. I am having a team meeting to talk about what traditions are in place and what we can do to make them better. So, what traditions does your cheer squad (and fans) have for:

-the National Anthem
-Kick-Off
-First Downs
-Touch Downs
-Field Goals
-Free Throws
-3 pointers
-Beginning of the 4th Quarter
-Victory

...or any other times? I can't wait to hear all of the great ideas!

- the National Anthem - we stand in a straight line and interlock legs right over left. right hand on heart, left behind our back. sometimes they put it around the girl to the left of them. i don't care as long as they all do the same thing!

-Kick-Off - right arm up in a punch motion shaking the pom. we have done the same in extensions in the past.

-First Downs - we don't have a tradition for this. we do have a couple of first and ten chants.

-Touch Downs - celebrate then pushups for every point. we wait to see if we'll get extra points before we do the pushups. no limit to the amount we do. if they score them we do them! i love season's when we are really good because then we get our conditioning in for the day!

-Field Goals - pushups for every point.

-Free Throws - they have this little chant and motion thing they say after we score.

-3 pointers - we don't have a tradition for this.

-Beginning of the 4th Quarter - football? sometimes we'll do an extended cheer, usually they just go up into the stands and do a crowd leading cheer.

-Victory - celebrate and walk the good game handshake line. football we are apart of the huddle. basketball we either go get ready for the boys game or end with our own huddle.

-Pre competition - they have a chant they do

-Summer - lots of traditions - big & lil sisters for camp. end of summer all night practice. team meetings at camp every night, we talk about certain stuff each night that is a tradition and things new girls aren't supposed to know until camp.

-Pep rallies - dance/cheer and whatever sport is the season of the pep rally do a chant in the middle at the end when everyone is leaving. We also have a spirit stick that is given out to a grade every pep rally.

 

[MHSCheercoach]

Just to add, we have a boy/girl dance at our tipoff game (we only have basketball) which requires each cheerleader to dance with a Varsity basketball boy. I make a mix of songs they want to use and then we have a couple practices to come up with a dance. The crowd loves it and so do the basketball boys and cheerleaders.

 

[jessicastuart]

Starting Line-Up: For football and basketball the announcers read off the starting line-up. Players that aren't starting line up in two lines and the cheerleaders stand next to them. As the starters run through the two lines, my girls will do jumps, standing tumbling, throw up simple stunts and cheer them on.

The National Anthem: We stand with our football team and do the typical cheerleader stance for the pledge (right broken-T over heart, arm behind back).

Kick-Off: We put up stunts and the flyers shuffle their poms until the kicker makes contact with the ball, then we turn to the crowd, dismount and start a crowd participation cheer.

Touch Downs: The high school technology students "DJ" the games. They always play a song after a touchdown has been made (or hasn't been made). We have learned many different sideline dances (thanks, NCA!) and we use those to go along with any song that plays.

Victory: We are the Warriors, and our student fan section is called "The Tribe". We do a lot of back and fourth cheers with them, but one of my favorite victory cheers is:

Cheerleaders & Tribe Leaders: "I"
Fans: "I"
Cheerleaders & Tribe Leaders: "I believe"
Fans: "I believe"
Cheerleaders & Tribe Leaders: "I believe that we"
Fans: "I believe that we"
Cheerleaders & Tribe Leaders: "I believe that we have"
Fans: "I believe that we have"
Cheerleaders & Tribe Leaders: "I believe that we have won"
All: "I believe that we have won!" (repeat for as long as everyone can)

It's simple, but it creates such a great vibe amongst our crowd. The Tribe takes buses to away games as well, so it's great to have their support on the road or not!

We have the same Homecoming Rivals each year with our neighboring town. It's one of the longest running rivalries in New York State, so we make it a pretty big to-do! Throughout our Homecoming Spirit Week we have:

• Spirit Week- Each day has a theme and all the students dress up (i.e.: Cowboy, Hawaiian, Decade, Mis-Match, Twin, Class Colors, School Colors, etc.)
• Powderpuff Football Game- Senior girls and junior girls play a game of flag football. They are coached by Senior and Junior football captains. Senior and junior boys dress up and perform as cheerleaders too!
• Bonfire- The football players and cheerleaders pump up the rest of the school for the big game. Student council usually has a DJ there. Teacher volunteers cook hamburgers and hot dogs.
• Pep Rally- The school plays games and all the grades are against one another (9th-12th). Points are collected throughout the game to see who the winning class is. The Varsity and JV teams perform and the teachers usually do some kind of skit for the school. The Homecoming Court is also crowned at pep rally.
• Car Parade- After the pep rally, athletic teams, school clubs and student groups get into their cars and are escorted by police cars and fire trucks throughout the city. At our town's 3 elementary schools, the teachers bring their students outside and they watch the parade. Everyone is told to wear school colors and it's so awesome to have everyone in the community come out and watch the parade! I can remember back to being a little kid and watching the parade.

 

[cheernerd5678]

-the National Anthem - At this point, we're already in our "tunnel". So we're in 2 lines, face the flag, left hand behind back right hand on heart.
-pregame - The boys run out of a football helmet and we line up in two lines on either side, alternating cheerleader and dancer. When they run out we spirit and shake our poms and such. Some people tumble out in front of them (terrifying, we can't go until the coach says to, my first game ever she waited too long and I almost got killed), the rest are lined up. As soon as the football players are out of the tunnel the band starts playing the fight song so we sprint (like we're running for our lives) over to our formation and usually join in on the second part.
-Kick-Off - hands in touchdown shaking our poms. When they kick it we clean then "Go" (right punch) "Bruins" (high v) and then clean.
-Touch Downs - fight song
-Victory - Fight song, then wait for the coach to be done talking and as they walk off the field we stand in 2 lines around them again doing our chant that goes "Hey hey hey hey, rb, you look so good to me"



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[CEAisstronger]

This is for JV
-Before Game
We were in two lines diagonally on the field with the football players behind our huge banner. We spirited and did a couple cheers like "Go. Go. Go titans go. Beat the raiders (just an example of a team we played's mascot)." Then the football players ran through the banner after the National Anthem
-National Anthem
We stood in two lines with right hand over heart and left hand behind back with our poms on the field.
-Kick Off
We went into one mans (secondary had the coed grip but all the weight was in the right leg which the main base was also holding and the backspot had ankles) and the flyer would spirit with one hand up (towards the direction where they were kicking off) and one hand behind our back
-First Down
We half turned to face the crowd when the announcer said, "Another Titan....." We hit daggers to right punch and yelled with the announcer saying, "First Down." Sometimes we would do a cheer that went, "first down, first down, another Titan first down."
-Touch Down
We ran to the endzone when they we're going for the extra point(s) and did as many push-ups were on the score board. Then we ran back and did our fight song all the way through saying the words with poms (it was pretty tiring when the we did a lot of push-ups). We had a couple games where drumline came, so we just did the fight song with them playing.
-Field Goal
We ran to the endzone and spirited.
-Free Throws
We had 3 chants with motions that we alternated for this
-3 Pointers
No tradition but personally I would yell, "Go *insert name*."
-Beginning of 4th quarter
We would do cheers with stunts or a pyramid between quarters
-Victory
We huddled in a circle and did a team cheer that we whispered, then normal voice, then yelled for football season. We didn't have anything for basketball season but we occasionally did the cheer, "We are proud of you. Yes we are proud of you *clap clap*"




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[tbabycheer609]

We had these things called lib wars. It served two purposes we got to know cheerleaders and coaches from other schools and the crowd LOVED it. Basically if we were at home we would invite the other teams cheerleaders over to our spot on the track at any time our coaches found appropriate during the game or in between quarters. Both teams would put the same amount of libs in the air and basically you would just hold those libs until there was only one girl left in the air. I'm proud to say my school has never lost a lib war!


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[tbabycheer609]

Sorry for the double post

Touchdowns- we always did handspring ripples, as many springs as we had points. Our band also played the fight song after every touchdown and we had a dance that went along with it. We actually used that dance as try out material as well.

Our student section always had cowbells (we're a little hick) and they would make certain beats with them, we had some dances that went along with those.

Our seniors stood on boxes in the back row and underclassmen were in the front row.

During the national anthem we always stood with our right hand on our heart and our left behind our back, fingers crossed. When the "freeeeeeeeeeeeee" part came on we would all raise our right hand toward the flag and do spirit fingers for the remainder of the song.

For the fourth quarter unless we were stunting/tumbling/chanting we stood on a single file line on the edge of the track closest to the field. The football players always said they loved this part of the game because they felt the crowd support with us being so close.

At any point during the game the captain(s) could call out "L-E-T-S-G-O!" And the rest of the team and usually the student section would respond with "LETS GO!" Repeat the call and response and the cheer ended with "green and gold (clap clap) let's go!" We had a similar cheer that went "L-E-T" and the rest of the team and crowd would repeat and the captains would say "S-G-O!" And everyone would repeat. Then everyone together would say "Let's go! Hey hey! Let's go! Fire up East!" We have a lot more that I cannot think of right now.



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