Hofstra Cheer Redefines Cheerleading with Virtual Routines
By: Stephanie Banat
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic in March of 2020, Hofstra’s cheerleading team has had to adjust to a number of strange circumstances, as the team went an entire year without cheering on campus until their first in-person practice on March 19, 2021.
After finally getting approved to cheer on campus, however, the team had to discontinue in-person practices once again, after their first two practices of the year, due to a positive Covid-19 test found within the program on March 22. Cheerleaders were then ordered by student health services to quarantine in their dorms and houses for 10 days.
Additionally, the 11 freshmen cheerleaders on the team were faced with extra challenging circumstances due to Covid-19. After spending their first six months on the team practicing on zoom, freshmen were then unable to attend the first two in-person practices on March 19 and March 21, because they had been exposed to someone with Covid-19 in a freshmen class during the week prior. Therefore, they had to endure two quarantines instead of just one and have yet to come face-to-face with their teammates or cheer in Hofstra’s gym.
The team’s next in-person practice is scheduled for April 9. Before they can enter the gym, cheerleaders are required to show that they have a negative covid test result on file from that week, have their temperatures taken upon entry, and must fill out a survey stating that they don’t have any Covid-related symptoms. While practicing, they are required to wear masks and stay six feet apart at all times except when stunting.
During the team’s year-long break from in-person practices, however, they still made a strong effort to continue practicing and doing other team activities virtually.
Cheerleaders and coaches met on zoom twice a week for virtual practices. On Wednesdays, they would do intense core workouts which included cardio, kickboxing and Pure Barre total-body workouts. On Fridays, they would practice their tumbling skills. They also had “team bonding” nights on Mondays, in which they played interactive games like trivia via zoom, simply to stay connected as a group.
“In addition to team workouts, we also did individual workouts twice a week and posted pictures of it in our team’s Facebook group each time to let our coaches and each other know that we did it,” senior cheerleader Annie Kambouras said. “We encourage each other to stay active and even to run a mile each week.”
Annie went on to explain that without practicing in person, however, it has weakened the team’s stunting skills — as stunting can only be executed together in person. Stunting consists of group building performances such as building pyramids with two flyers on top of two bases. “Stunting is a major part of cheerleading”, Annie said, “so not being able to practice it has set back our progress.”
“Upperclassmen on the team also normally use practices to teach college stunting to the new freshmen because they are not familiar with it” Annie continued, “but this year, obviously we couldn’t do that.”
Hofstra’s cheerleading team is now preparing for the 2021 College Cheerleading National Championship, or the UCA (Universal Cheerleaders Association) tournament, which will be held from April 27-28 at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.
While some college teams will be attending the competition in person, Hofstra cheer will be competing entirely virtually. This is in part due to the fact that New York State has placed more restrictions on College Sports during the pandemic than other states have.
Competing virtually, however, presents different challenges for Hofstra’s cheer team. They are required to choreograph and record two routines: one that will test their qualification for the semi-final competition, and another that will test their qualification for the finals. The team has hired a videographer in order to help them film these clips.
“This year is also different because for the first time, we are competing in the championship as a co-ed team,” junior cheerleader Jessica Fleischer explained. “We usually have a separate all girls game day and a small co-ed division and we create separate routines for each. Now, we have combined the two since we have less time to practice…its better that we focus on one thing.”
Junior cheerleader Grace Obregon also spoke about the challenges of having less time to practice for the Championship.
“It definitely sets us back a bit” she said, “because during a normal season, pre-corona, we would have pre-camp, we’d practice during the summer, then practice for fall fest, and then we would do intersession which is when we’d get ready for nationals.”
“During intersession, we would practice for nationals for three hours, three times a day,” Grace continued, “Now, we practice only twice a week, for one hour on Fridays and two hours on Sundays. We also have time limits on how long we can do stunting, since it requires us touching each other to lift people into the air. Whereas we used to do about 50 stunts back to back, now we do less than half of that.”
Freshman cheerleader Calista Macarthur spoke about not being able to attend her first-ever college cheerleading championship in person.
“As a high school cheerleader, the College Cheer Championship is something I’ve always watched videos of and looked forward to” she said, “so the fact that my first championship will be virtual…with just us doing the routines alone in our gym and no crowds of fans… makes it a lot less exciting.”
When asked what the most frustrating part of not cheering in person is, Calista said its the fact that their team hasn’t progressed as much as some of the other college teams they will be competing against, because those teams had a lot more opportunities to practice in person.
“Our skill level is not what it should be at this point.” Calista said, “I guess because of New York guidelines, we are a lot farther behind a lot of other cheer schools across the U.S in places like Florida, Kentucky, the Carolinas…they have been practicing in person this entire year and leveling up their skills…while we on the other hand only began to stunt literally last week.”
On the bright side, Calista predicts that it will be easier for Hofstra cheer to conduct team activities virtually in the upcoming years.
“Basically, this whole year was a test-run of how cheerleading is going to work during the pandemic,” she explained. “The incoming freshman next year are going to get more of a normal experience because we’re all going into this next year of the pandemic more ready…and at that point, the school will really know how to run cheerleading virtually.”
Hofstra’s cheerleaders have managed to navigate through a difficult situation by making the best of unusual circumstances and staying united as a team force. They are hopeful that they will soon be able to start practicing and competing in person again and will enhance their skills to the level that they know they are capable of reaching.
