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