Sophomore Jade Sewell is an English/secondary education major minoring in Spanish. The Glasford, Ill., native is a member of Bradley’s cheerleading squad.
It started in kindergarten with a program called the Comets, which I did for three years. It wasn’t until middle school, though, that I began to love cheerleading. After that, I pretty much dedicated my life to it.
The best part about cheerleading is that unlike other sports, cheerleading has very observable progress. Also, cheerleading gives you the benefit of being able to plan everything before- hand. You know what to expect and it’s up to you to do the best of your ability.
Oh, my gosh. In one stunt, a girl did a front flip, and I caught her foot right in my face. My chin was bleeding. I couldn’t show any pain so I pretended nothing happened until my co-instructor said something about it. I bandaged it myself and got back out there.
I haven’t faced a lot of conflicts here on campus. But I have been in situations with other female cheerleaders where a derogatory comment was made about someone who was bisexual or lesbian. That’s put me in an awkward situation where I don’t want to feed into it, but I also don’t always feel comfortable saying something because those are people I have to put up in the air and it could become awkward.
My dream is to get into a high school where I can coach cheerleading as well as teach English. As a coach, I miss competing, but I enjoy being able to impart my knowledge on to the next generation of cheerleaders.
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