Behind every strong athletic team, there is a coach who is dedicated and wants to be there for the team. West High Cheer has been able to look past their recent struggles and move on. This all started when they broke the tradition of going to state every year to compete against other high school teams in Iowa.

Earlier this year, West High’s new athletic director, Craig Huegel, had to get involved with the situation. “Bottom line is, we missed the deadline with the registration,” Huegal said. “But at the end of the day, we just have to accept it.”

Some of the cheerleaders have different opinions, though. “I don’t think we went to cheer state this year because Kayla was too lazy to sign us up, but she claimed she forgot,” said Jenna Starr ’20. This is Starr’s first year cheering at West, and she was really looking forward to being able to go to state to compete. “Us freshman, I know, we’re so excited and looking forward to this season,” she said.

Megan Herring ’18 thought something different. She said that throughout the season so far “there had been a lot of organization issues.” Unfortunately, the previous coach had never got them registered, which upset a lot of the members on the team.

Whatever the reason was for not going to state, the cheerleaders weren’t very happy. “It is not the team’s fault,” Huegal said. He explained that they tried with all of their possible power to contact everyone they could to get the cheer team registered. It was then discovered that once the deadline had passed, no other teams were allowed to register.

Soon after, their coach resigned because of personal challenges. Many team members saw this as a good thing because she had made the rules strict and didn’t create a fun environment like the cheerleaders had hoped it would be. Lexi Goodale ’19 said “I think the atmosphere has just changed a lot. Everyone is very relaxed and excited for the rest of the season. I’m not quite sure [what the future looks like] but things are starting to look up.”

Huegal has had the opportunity to ride with the cheerleaders to the games after the coach resigned. “I am very impressed with the kids involved in the program” Huegal said. “The relationships that the cheerleaders have between each other are great.”

Moving forward, there are plans to get a new coach in the very near future. Huegal said they need a coach who can lead the team and communicate well. “Those two traits are the key traits that we need for the next cheer coach.” The job opening has been posted and there are definitely people interested in filling the position.

As for the cheerleaders, they are feeling more optimistic about the rest of the season. Herring said “I feel as if the future for now will be the way cheer should have been from the beginning- Fun!”