Trinity’s cheer squad is back in action and looking forward to their debut at the home football game this upcoming Saturday.

Co-captains Zoe Heeter and Heather Hayes are excited that their team has doubled in size.

“I’m really excited to have a bigger team with our new girls. They are all so sweet and make great additions to the team. I’m also looking forward to cheering on our sports teams and getting back out there in uniform. I love my team and I can’t wait to do what I love with them,” Heeter said.

The cheer squad went from six members to 12, which the captains say will help them perform better stunts and routines.

To anyone who doesn’t believe that cheer is a sport, these ladies say, “Think twice.” The team practices twice a week for three hours each time. The women run a mile and do an intensive workout to practice for their stunts.

“I love the challenge of being a cheerleader. You get pushed every practice to be better and to achieve things you didn’t even know your body could do,” said Bibi Cutiletta, a sophomore psychology major. “It’s not easy; cheerleading is a sport, and a hard one at that. We run at least two miles every practice and spend over half of our practice building strength through pushups, sit-ups, lunges, crunches, etc. It’s a lot of work.”

The cheer team did their first performance for the first-year move-in day, and will continue performing at various sports events throughout the semester.

“We were at the freshman move-in, the involvement fair and the academic fair. We dress up in our uniforms and make a presence. We cheer for football games and we’ll also cheer for home basketball games,” Hayes said.

At this point in the semester, the ladies are still learning their cheers and making sure they’ve got the motions right. Later in the semester is when the team starts learning the more complex stunt routines.

“A lot of people think all we do is wave poms around, but it’s so much more than that. We also do tumbling and stunting “” because we lift humans for a sport “” that take a ton of upper body strength and balance. I can’t tell you how many times someone has told me that “˜Cheer isn’t hard’ or “˜It’s not a sport.’ I tell them all the same thing: come to practice Monday or Thursday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and make sure you bring lots of water,” Heeter said.

The women are grateful for their time on the cheer team and credit it for some of their favorite Trinity memories.

“I wasn’t really expecting to do cheer here. I got a lot more out of it than I originally had expected. I met a lot of my best friends doing cheer. It’s nice because if you have enough spirit, they teach you everything you need to know. So you didn’t have to come in with the most skill. It was more about the attitude and being enthusiastic,” Hayes said.

You can catch the ladies cheering on Tiger football this Saturday, Sept. 23 at 1 p.m.