Dressed in a white puffer jacket with a cursive ‘Caroline’ embroidered near the chest pocket and hair up into a ponytail with a white bow, junior Caroline Hawkinson stood on the Friday Night Lights field with the varsity cheerleaders.
But she wasn’t wearing the black varsity cheer uniform.
She was standing — wearing white — next to the varsity cheer coaches as the first cheer manager at SM East.
“I just love being in that environment and watching,” Hawkinson said. “I don't think people get how much work goes into it. They have to memorize a ton of cheers and dances and it's cool to see how they all work together with that.”
But this wasn’t her original plan.
In the spring of 2025, Hawkinson attended all four cheer clinics after her dive practice in preparation for tryouts.
On April 4, Hawkinson spirited — cheered and showed off her pep — to stand side-by-side with two tryout partners, all facing the eight judges. They ran through the dance and cheer routine, showed off their pistol jumps, toe touches, hurdlers, pikes and fight song routine.
Everyone was fighting for a spot on the 2025-26 cheerleading squad.
“I was so nervous going into it,” Hawkinson said.
Hawkinson hadn’t cheered or danced before, and stopped doing gymnastics when she was eight years old. Her mom and aunt had cheered before, and her friends convinced her to try out.
She didn’t make the cheerleading squad, but this wasn’t the end of her cheerleading career.
“I was sad, but I was like, ‘It's okay,’” Hawkinson said. “Like, I tried it out, so that's what I was happy about. I pushed myself to do something new.”
Last school year, after Hawkinson’s Spanish 2 class, varsity cheer coach and Spanish teacher Laura Buckman pulled Hawkinson aside.
Buckman asked her to join the cheer team, but this time as a manager.
So, Hawkinson began her role on the first day of school.
Her first hour is cheer, so she comes to school 40 minutes early, at 7 a.m., attends practice until 9:15 a.m. and continues her school day and other classes.
She helps the coaches get out the gear, puts the poms and megaphones away and controls the music.
Hawkinson hopes to continue in this role into the next semester, even when the team has after-school practices instead of first hour.
She also hopes to try out for the cheer team next year, making the most of her last year.
“She just really does a good job to get people hype in the morning,” varsity cheerleader and junior Mary Marsden said. “She just hypes us up, and it's a lot of fun.”
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