By: Drew Williams

As Christmas nears, that can only mean one thing: girls winter sports are here! Eisenhower’s biggest winter sports for the girls are basketball and cheerleading. Attending a basketball game can get your adrenaline pumping, and so can cheerleading with all the stunts they attempt. When the game is close and on the line, you get anxious, even when you’re just a fan watching from the bleachers. Hard work, dedication, and a lot of conditioning goes into basketball. When the fourth quarter begins, you can’t believe your eyes; there’s only eight minutes left. The Squire wishes both teams the best of luck this season.

     The Squire got together with Emiley Wheeler to check up on the Lady Knights basketball team. When asking her about the team’s biggest strengths and weaknesses, she replied with, “We all can play different positions because we are all strong in different ways, but filling the spot of point guard will be tough.” Point guard and sophomore Leah Peterson will be out for the season after tearing her ACL. While the season might be tough without Leah, the girls hope to keep pushing forward and progress this season.

While cheerleading might not be as suspenseful as basketball, it takes a lot of work and comes with some great risks. Cheerleading can be a dangerous sport; you have to trust your team to catch you, to have your back, and to remember all of the cheers and competition routine. To perform well, your squad must all be on the same page. The cheer team will be participating in competitions this year, as well as cheering at the boys basketball games. They perform their stunts in-between quarters, and their dance routine during halftime of the varsity game.

The Squire got together with senior on the cheer team, Shannon Kellogg, to ask her about the part of cheering that many Knights fans might be a little less familiar with – cheer competitions. Shannon explained that when they participate in the competitions, they “Go with your team and perform your routine, which is stunts, a dance, and a cheer.” She also shared that there are usually individual competitions for tumbling, and jumping. When The Squire asked Shannon about her ambitions for the season, she replied, “To create a good routine and have fun with my squad.”

Well, it is clear that both sports take a lot of focus, commitment, strength, and conditioning. Basketball is one of the many sports where you have to have short term memory. You can’t let one missed shot stay with you or you will not play well the rest of the game. For cheerleading you must stay focused the whole time during your stunts and dance routine.

The Squire wishes the best of luck to both teams this year and invites you to come out and support the girls at games and competitions!