GSIS 2018 Yearbook: No Limits Volume 12 yearbook-reduced | Page 104

Even with a small team of only seven girls, the Varsity Cheer team managed to use their group size to their advantage, building strong relationships and encour- aging each other to achieve their goal of perfect dance moves. Their biggest concern was creating rou- tines with diverse stunts as their team num- bers would make this difficult. Rose Kim, junior, said, “We were all concerned that we would lack in formation and stunts. In the beginning, we thought we wouldn’t be able to make some formations with two stunts because we had one less member to do it.” This did not stop the team from practic- ing hard: they did not give up. Rather than accepting the size of the team as a disad- vantage, they took it as an opportunity. Sarah Kim, seventh-grader said, “At first, it was hard to have a small team because we were sometimes limited to what we could do. But, as we practiced together, we helped each other and didn’t blame one another. So after that, I realized it didn’t really matter how many people you have on the team. What’s important it to always help each other with a smile.” For Rose Kim, it was actually better that there were less people as she thought they were able to “develop skills more than other teams” such as having “unity” in moves and having “greater teamwork.” In order to achieve perfect dance moves, the girls paid attention to every small detail of their movement in order to be in sync, details that would allow them to receive points in KAIAC. Captain Jaclyn Kim said, “We decided to make our dance moves as good as pos- sible without the stunts. We went over each count one by one, making sure the move- ments were sharp and clean.” Co-Captain Betty Hwang said their goals were to make the dance moves unique and every movement detailed. For her, it was important to “record the dance moves altogether,” checking every little movement, mistake, and formation. She added, “Compared to last year, we achieved many things. First, we gained courage to participate in KAIAC. Even though we were a very small team, we were willing to compete against other teams that were huge team compared to our team.” The cheer team starts their performance with a “Ba ba ba ba” cheer to get the GSIS crowd pumped up. The cheer team had time at half- time during basketball games to perform. Si Eun Lee performs a cheer during halftime of a home game. This was her first year being a part of the cheer team. Sarah Kim and Jaclyn Kim stand together as they cheer for the boys basketball team, playing against KIS. Captain Jaclyn had many responsi- bilities because she had to initiate the cheers. Rose Kim helps Betty Hwang as they stretch and warm up their backs. The cheer team had many stretches which required them to work together. Emily Keum does her best to stretch her leg as she warms up for cheer practice. Ms. Francois helped her as she was struggling to reach the bar with her hands. Top Row: Rose Kim, Ms. Francois, Akari Sakamoto, Ms. Kim, Sieun Lee Top Row: Row: Rose Kim, Coach Sarah Francois, Akari Sakamoto, Coach Kim, Si Eun Lee; Bottom Betty Hwang, Kim, Emily Keum, Jaclyn Bottom Row: Betty Hwang, Sarah Kim, Emily Keum, Jaclyn Kim 104 Winter Sports