2023-24 Albany cheerleaders named
By Melinda L. Lucas
Cheerleader tryouts for the 2023-2024 school year were held last Friday, March 10 prior to dismissal for spring break.
Several adjustments were made in this year’s tryouts, including the change back to an eight-member varsity squad.
“Last spring, we just had 10 high school girls signed up, so it was decided that they would all be on varsity rather than having a separate JV squad,” said cheer sponsor Nickie Leveridge. “The administrators always intended to go back to eight on varsity when the numbers went back up.”
There will be six on JV this year, she added, with eight junior high cheerleaders, four from the incoming seventh grade and four eighth graders.
The point system was also changed this year, moving back to include a student body vote.
“The student body input was taken out because of COVID, but we felt it was time to put that back in the mix,” said Leveridge.
The points for the scores were decided on 20 percent student body vote, 35 percent teacher evaluations, and 45 percent judges ratings.
The entrants performed as groups before the student body, then had both individual and group tryouts before the three judges from Cisco College.
“The process was pretty slow, because the judges were very thorough,” said Leveridge. “They took their time and really worked to critique the girls.”
Robyn Trail, who will be a senior next year, was selected as head cheerleader.
Others on the varsity are Kaisley Bartee, Lainey Cash, Ann Davis, Emily Esparza, Mimi Ivy, Myleigh Leveridge, and Madi Parrott.
Landon Kreitler will be the Lion mascot for 2023-2024.
JV cheerleaders are Hattie Braly, Tatum Grady, Charlee Hefner, Zayne Lefevre, Ashlyn Miller, and Serenity Murphy.
The junior high squad will be made up of Finlee Brown, Tara Cauble, Maddie Stapp, Charli Trail, Hattie Fikes, Avery Gleitz, Hailey Gleitz, and Kynlee Milligan.
