Student athletes at CMU have a packed schedule, and the cheer team is no exception. The team cheers at all home football games, along with some away games and postseason playoffs. The team can be found cheering at men’s and women’s basketball games, as well as tackling some home volleyball, soccer and wrestling events in smaller groups.
The team is currently ranked second in the Division II small coed division of the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) Collegiate National Tournament, where they compete every January at Walt Disney World, a favorite memory for many team members. “Last year, we went to Disney, and it was like my first time at Disneyland. It was fun. It was nice being able to not only be with my friends, but also just be a part of, like, something else […] with not only my team, but my friends,” said Amanda Trujillo, a sophomore pre-nursing major who flies for smaller game day stunts, and is also a base and mid for bigger pyramid stunts.
“Oh yeah, I mean we took second my freshman year at nationals, and that was probably one of the biggest moments ever,” said Mickee Franck, a junior radiologic sciences student, who is a flyer in the team stunts.
The CMU cheer team often competes at UCA in January, which can be an adjustment for some team members. “I’m from North Dakota, so cheering in North Dakota is not as intense as it is here to say the least, so it was a really big adjustment, coming to such a powerhouse state with cheering,” said Franck.
She maintained a positive outlook on the training when elaborating on other favorite cheer memories, “Just a fun favorite memory […] oh man, I’ve just fallen on my face a lot, and you just have to laugh every time it happens. I mean, you can’t get upset. You just have to laugh at yourself,” said Franck.
This year’s coed team has 42 members, most of whom are freshmen and sophomores. New students have joined the team for a variety of reasons; the team’s competitiveness as a Division II school makes it attractive to potential recruits.
“I knew I was coming to Mesa, and I wanted to make a switch to go into collegiate cheerleading, and Mesa was my number one choice to go to school,” said freshman criminal justice major Lex Delaney, who is a back spot in stunts.
The team meets three times a week, in addition to meeting for the games that they cheer for. The time commitment can be a challenge for members. “Definitely the time commitment. We are here a lot. We are here three times a week, plus games on the weekends and then weights, so it’s definitely a big time commitment,” said Trujillo when asked about the most difficult part of being on the team.
The cheer squad also does a lot of work locally in Grand Junction and Mesa County, attending events at different schools. “Recently we just went to Caprock Academy and we got to talk to them about peer pressure, and hard work, and diligence and all that kind of stuff,” said Franck, elaborating on how cheer gets the city community involved.
Community and friendship are values shared by members of the cheer team. When discussing her favorite parts of being on the squad, Trujillo said, “The community I’ve made. I live with some of my best friends, and they’re also all on the team, so I see them everywhere, and we always do everything together, and also just being a part of a community and being a part of, like, school, and seeing not only the student life, but also being just a part of a lot of things that embody CMU. I really like the atmosphere of the team, we all get along really well, and I’ve made a lot of really good friends here. I think it’s nice, especially like my freshman year, to have all of these people to be able to meet and get to know,” added Delaney.
