If there is one thing everyone is trying to do during the winter season, it is warming up.  Whether it is by rubbing your hands together, wrapping yourself up in a fuzzy blanket or drinking a cup of hot chocolate, everyone warms up in their own way.  The same goes for winter sports: each team does something different before they begin their games, matches and competitions.

Amy Flanagan- Gymnastics

“Before the meets, we all huddle in a circle, and then the coaches give us a pep talk and give us all high fives. Then, the seniors make a mini circle in the middle, and they start the cheer by screaming the first part of it. Then the rest of the team joins in and all does the cheer.”

“The cheer was originated when our coach (Mrs. Owens) was a gymnast (in the early 1990s) and it has been going ever since.”

Wrestling, Brian Vickers

“Since we all do not go at the same time, we warm up together before any matches start. And at home meets, after walk-outs, we do a little team meeting, pump-up talk.”

“After the matches, we have a team meeting with our coach and talk about what went right and what went wrong, and what we can do better.”

Taylor Sloan-Girls Bowling

“Before our matches, we do warm-ups, and then after, that we have practice. Once that is done, we do a big team cheer, and we always have one person do a motivational speech. We have always done the warm-ups before the matches, but the motivation thing is something that started this year.”

Poms, Nina Reiter

“Before a competition, we all get in a circle and put our hands on each other’s backs, and we put our right leg [in] and point our right foot. The captains say what we need to focus on for the team, and once we are done giving words of encouragement, we do the “What team?, Wildcats!” cheer.  After that, we all grab hands and count, 5, 6, 7, 8, and then we all drop. [The cheer] started two years ago, and the team has always done the circle up with the captains talking.”

Boys Basketball-2 year varsity- Jabari Quigley

“Before our basketball games, what we like to do as a team is to turn on some rap music and hype music, and we kinda start dancing and messing around in the locker room. Even though it kind of seems like it would be distracting, it kind of gives us an energy to start out the game right.”

Boys Swimming and Diving, Jordan Mitchell

“Before every swim meet, we will do a team cheer, and it consists of something called breakdowns.  It is really cool, and it gets everyone hyped and really loud.  On weekends when we have a meet, we will go out to breakfast before the actual swim meet.”

Hockey, Jack Glenn

“We get there about an hour before, and we usually stretch as a team along with calisthenics.  Then we all get dressed in the locker room as a team.  We all listen to [a song], and someone does a dance to it.  That started last year; someone just played that song and everyone danced to it.”

Boys Bowling, Jason Giza

“As a team we gather and huddle around the coaches and one our teammates, Nathan Campbell (also a member of Drops of Ink), gives a speech and a word of the day. Then we say ‘Wildcats on three’ and start the meet.”

Cheer, Allison Nelson

“Right before we compete, we form a circle, where we cross our fingers and hold hands.  Then Kenzie [Cook] says all our goals for the week and what we want to do well. Then we all shout out words of encouragement and we ‘spin to win.’  Then we go in the middle and all put our hands in and Hannah Boufford (also on Drops of Ink)  does the ‘What team? Wildcats!’ cheer from ‘High School Musical.’”

Girls Basketball, Erin Dunleavy

“We usually get there early to shoot around in the field house for about 45 minutes. After shoot around, we go back and watch the JV team play for a bit before we go to the locker room.  In the locker room, Coach Pedersen has written down the starting line up and what we should focus on during the game. But, before he comes in there is usually a bit of screaming and dancing.  Then after the line up is called, we all yell ‘D-up’ as a team joke, but it gets us pumped up.”