As Bella and I sat down and had our sport’s interview, I recently noticed one framed picture displayed on her desk. In the picture, she was smiling proudly, holding a bouquet of sunflowers, matching her bright yellow cheer uniform. As a Tallwood High School Alum, Bella Abruzzase reflected on her experience as a lifelong cheerleader, and the impact it had on her growing up.

“It was definitely tough,” she recalled. “Physically and mentally. It was fun but it was a lot to put myself through.”

“Do you ever feel like being a cheerleader changed you as a person?” I asked. Bella’s extroverted, amiable nature is typical of a high school cheerleader in media, and I wondered if her participation was a cause or effect of her personality.

She explained, “When I was a kid, I was painfully shy. But being on a team with like minded individuals who want to see you do good and improve really affects the way you perceive the world. I made a lot of friends with girls that I admired. I came out of my shell and started to open up and reach out to strangers and now I feel like I can talk to anybody!”

She recalled a few anecdotes from Tallwood where she communicated beyond where her comfort zone formerly lie, and explained that with her new found confidence, she felt like a new person.

“Do you think this is something that happens to a lot of athletes?” I asked. “They are shy, but they get on a team and eventually make friends?”

“It’s almost inevitable,” Bella grinned. “When you’re on a team, your goal is to work together to achieve something. It’s really hard to do that when you don’t have relationships with the people you play with. Relationships indicate trust, communication, and effort. If you don’t trust, communicate with, and put effort forth with your teammates, your team is probably going to suck,”

“I can’t put that in the article,” I giggled.

“But you agree?” she asked, eyes bright.

And I do. So Bella and I finished our conversation, and she referenced another framed picture on her desk. It was a quote, scrawled in gold that read, “She believed she could, so she did.” By Amanda Howard

“It’s just something I’ve always loved,” she confessed. “Life just seems so much better when I’m dancing on a stage or in a studio.”

She has performed throughout her entire life, from jazz to ballet technique, contemporary and modern, Aurora has made her journey worthwhile. She has done competition with passion and has performed in fall ballets as a team player.

“One of my favorite memories of Woodside dance was the fall ballet my sophomore year. We performed The Nutcracker—the same ballet the dance magnet performed this year. In my day, I had the lead role as Clara. When I came to see my brother perform in it this year, it was like a wave of nostalgia.”

She reflected on her experience as a dancer, and still dances to this day. Currently, she is a dance instructor at the very studio that cultivated her as a dancer. By Amanda Howard

As long as there have been high school varsity sports, there have been debates whether cheerleading is a true sport. The naysayers claim there is nothing athletic about cheerleading. Meanwhile, the proponents of cheerleading point to the acrobatic and synchronized movements each member of a team makes when performing.

Don’t football players work in synchronized ways to execute plays? A basketball team utilizes a ‘motion’ offense with players moving in learned ways, doesn’t it? Therefore, cheerleading has much in common with those two major varsity sports. It also leaves a toll on the body and injuries in cheerleading are rife in 2018.

Cheerleading vs. Dance Team – What’s the difference?

To the untrained eye, it may be difficult to see the difference between a cheerleading team and a dance team. There are quite a number of differences between the two groups and these include how the teams interact with sports fans, dress and compete.

Cheerleaders are not dancers and dance teams are not cheerleaders. It seems easy to say, but difficult to separate them. Cheerleaders have a much different job. The team works to motivate a group of fans at a game and to help build an atmosphere that will inspire the team they represent to win. This may entail doing acrobatic flips, muscle building poses or expressing themselves vocally.

Dance teams aren’t expected to do these same activities. Their job is to dance at halftime or during long game breaks. The dance team gives fans a chance to be entertained and in no way is their routine an inspiring rabble-rousing call to get sports fans on their feet.