Pandemic Pep – The cheer team is prohibited from wearing masks while stunting

As cheerleaders were called up to the front of the gym to pick up their uniforms, they also grabbed the newest addition to their ensemble — individually wrapped, black and blue masks with SME Cheer logos spread across the fabric, matching their attire. 

All summer, East’s cheerleading squads have been practicing outside with their masks on and performing socially distanced tumbling, cheers, chants and dances. After a two-month break due to a rise in COVID-19 numbers causing SMSD sports to be postponed, the Board of Education voted on Sept. 9 to allow sports to continue. They also gave permission for cheer to hold indoor practices.

However, on Sept. 22, Kansas State High Schools Activities Association (KSHSAA) stated in their Activity Specific Risk Mitigation Consideration that no stunting is to take place in mask mandated areas. As of Sept. 17, the mask mandate in Johnson County was extended to Oct. 15. According to Head Cheer Coach Mkilar Otte, the teams were allowed to stunt prior to the new regulations.

The University of Kansas Medical Center and the National Federation of High School Sports  both advised athletes not to wear masks while participating in physically-demanding activities. However, prior to their update that stunting could not take place, the KSHSAA stated wearing masks while stunting was strictly prohibited. Per suggestion, cheerleaders were also not allowed to wear their masks during competitions. 

Before receiving the news they weren’t allowed to stunt, according to Otte, wearing their masks was a safety issue and the cheer team could have been “ground bound,”— forced to stop stunting — by KSHSAA if they were seen with masks on while in the air. Prior to new restrictions, Otte devised a system ensuring that masks can come off safely only while flyers were up.

“They have a place in their uniform that they tuck them into,” Otte said. “It’ll be super fast changing, and it allows them to keep the masks on as much as possible while also allowing for them to stunt.” 

Stunting took some getting used to, according to senior and Co-Cheer Captain Zoey Lovern, but the cheer teams have also taken other precautions to keep people safe. Each cheerleader is six feet from one another on the field for games, mats are cleaned before and after use and stunting groups are localized to the same four girls to avoid extra exposure if a COVID-19 outbreak were to occur. If one girl in the stunt group tests positive, the whole stunt group is required to quarantine. 

Due to social distancing guidelines, everyone is spread across the gym at practices, which can make it difficult for cheerleaders to talk with their teammates, stated sophomore cheerleader Greta Dickerson. 

During summer practices, the cheer teams worked around stunting and focused on perfecting their cheers and tumbling. Lovern feels the circumstances COVID-19 has placed onto the cheer team has led them to take cheer more seriously.

“I think in some weird way, everyone’s a little more positive about cheer this year, just because we know what it felt like for that to be taken away,” Lovern said.

Not only has it been more difficult to practice, but the restrictions have taken away from the team’s preparation time. The cheerleaders usually practice for two months before the first game, whereas this year, they were persistent through only a week.

“We [had] to kind of work two steps ahead of ourselves to get everything ready by the first game, when normally we would have all summer,” Dickerson said. 

The cheer team will have to work even harder this week, since a portion of the cheerleaders went on an annual father-daughter camping trip from Sept. 19 through 20 and now have to quarantine for two weeks. The school also made a rule stating that anyone who had been in large group gatherings, inside or outside, must self-isolate for 14 days from sports and activities to ensure the safety of the programs and school.

Although this year’s sports conditions are different from previous years, the cheer teams are trying to keep everyone safe in hopes of some normalcy later in the year.       

“It’s been really hard being a senior and knowing that this might be my last year of cheer ever,” Lovern said. “I just hope that fall sports are able to stay open so that we have a chance to cheer for everything — have a nice last year.”