Behind the scenes of any performance, there is hard work, dedication, traditions, and superstitions. Nerves and adrenaline can take over the body when it comes to being up next to take the competition floor; to calm those nerves, the cheerleaders continue to carry on their traditions before every competition.

“The [cheerleading] team and I have many traditions,” junior Riley Conway said. “One of them is having a team dinner at a teammates house or the coaches before every competition. Towards the end of that dinner, one teammate buys a charm to put on a necklace that everyone has and it has a lot of meaning to the team.”

There are many things that the cheerleading team does together, but there are also a lot of personal superstitions that they each have.

“One thing that I always do is retie and double knot both of my shoes right before we compete,” sophomore Hadde Luebke said. “One of my worst fears is my shoe coming off on the competition floor.”

Without doing these traditions that the cheerleading team has, this could lead them to having anxiety and not as much confidence as they need to feel good about the routine that they put out on the mat.

“I feel that if we did not do any of the traditions that we do before we went out on the floor, then we would all be even more nervous than we all already are,” freshman Alexis Dalton said. “I feel like when we all come together and talk, it makes us all feel supported.”

Feeling supported and coming together to make one big family is just one major component of the team. The sequoit cheerleaders plan to stay connected with the history of superstitions that the team has to get rid of their nerves and butterflies.

Many sport teams have a tradition that they carry on through multiple seasons. Whether the tradition is for good luck or canoeing the legacy, many teams create a stronger bond because of traditions. For the Antioch varsity dance team, there has been an annual chant that had been passed on for decades. Every year each team adds something special for  that season and passes it onto the leaders of the next year. This year the dance team decided to start a new and fresh tradition by starting a new and shorter chant.

“The chant was so long that it would take almost 45 minutes of prep time,” varsity dance team assistant coach Kelly Taylor said. “We blended this idea of making our own path and having a new team so they came up with their own.”

The dance team believes that this chant brings good luck and positive energy to the team when they are stressed or nervous. The main time they yell this chant is right before they perform at competitions. They believe that it is completely necessary to do to bring up the energy and positivity of the team.

“It’s a good luck charm for the team before we go out on the floor,” junior Kelsi Sheren said. “It keeps the tradition with the dance team because I feel like a lot of times we’re so focused on competition that we forget that we’re also part of a legacy.”

This year is different of the dance team because there are no seniors. As a result, the juniors have to step up and become leaders for the team to motivate and keep them positive.

“This year our leader is Grace Rowe because she is always there to pump up and motivate the team,” head coach Samantha Kanya said. “Maggie Quirke is our other leader, the chant ends with her going around and giving a fist bump to each member of the team.”

This dance chant has been added to and changed through many decades. The Antioch dance team is excited to keep their new tradition alive by passing their new and improved chant to future leaders of the team.