Finding a balance: Sophomore Evan Jantsch juggles varsity cheer with Allstar cheer

Sophomore Evan Jantsch frantically threw on her blue-and-black two-piece cheer uniform before bolting out the doors of East. She had to rush if she was going to make it to the KC Cheer gym in time, but the rest of the East varsity cheerleaders continued to practice without her.

Bouncing from practice to practice has become habitual for Janstch, who is on both East varsity cheer and an Allstar team at KC Cheer. But she doesn’t mind the long hours of cheerleading every week for both teams — her passion for the sport keeps her motivated to spend all of her time learning new skills.

“I just wanna cheer more everyday,” Jantsch said.

Although she already juggles East practices three days a week and KC Cheer practices two to three days a week, Jantsch is eager to spend every free moment improving. By training in her backyard on her Air Track tumbling mat or going to the gym to keep her muscles in shape, she keeps up her stamina by lifting weights and working on her core strength. Her position as a base means that she needs to maintain her upper body strength to hold other girls up during high-intensity performances.

Unlike other cheerleaders on her competitive team who have been cheering since they were toddlers, Jantsch has only been involved in the sport since freshman year. But her seven years of experience in competitive gymnastics helped her excel in tumbling.

“Evan brings a lot of technique to tumbling,” KC Cheer head coach Amanda Ford said. “She’s a very strong tumbler because she has a gymnast background.

Although she’s an experienced tumbler, starting competition cheer with less than a year’s experience was still a hard transition. After being convinced to start Allstar cheer by varsity cheerleader sophomore Gianna Sorce, who had also done KC Cheer, Jantsch at first felt intimidated by the high-level cheerleaders at her new gym.

“I was like ‘Oh my gosh that girl looks so good, I don’t know how I’m gonna do this,’” Jantsch said. “But I honestly fell in love with the atmosphere of KC Cheer.”

It wasn’t long before Jantsch told her mom she wanted to do competition cheer in college.

According to Jantsch, she shows her enthusiasm for cheer when she “mat-talks” her team — cheering on her teammates and congratulating them for learning new skills.

“When I’m running around the floor, if I ever have a break for air, I’m always screaming at my teammates like ‘You’ve got this!’” Jantsch said.

Ford sees Jantsch’s cheerfulness as a big help in bringing fun to the team while they’re training.

“I think one of Evan’s biggest attributes that she brings to the team is her fun personality,” Ford said. “She’s always there to be goofy and energized and really pick the girls up. Even if they’re in there working really hard, you can always count on her for a couple of good laughs to lighten the mood.”

Not only does Jantsch’s love for cheerleading make her happy to bounce from practice to practice on both of her teams, it also sets a contagiously energetic mood for the rest of the cheerleaders according to Ford.