The Goffstown Varsity Cheer team suffered several setbacks this fall season. The team lost 6 talented teammates, and with limited gym time available, there’s only so much the team is able to accomplish. The varsity cheer team practices from 7-9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday every week and attends a tumbling class at Royalty Elite in Bow on Thursdays. As competition season approaches, additional weekend practices bring stress for the team. Competition season means the team has to perfect the routine for the state competition on November 4th.

Alicia Duval, an athlete on the varsity team, explains how, “there’s a lot of conflict this season. We’ve lost a lot of girls in a short amount of time and it’s very stressful.” A lot of the conflict she says comes from practices being so late at night. She explains how some girls don’t get home until 9:30 at night and still have to eat dinner, do homework, and shower, pushing bedtime to 11-11:30 p.m. which is late considering many girls have to get up at 6 a.m.. In addition, many girls miss practice without any notice, so it’s difficult to get things done. Alicia feels as though the team loses a new girl every week, so fixing the routine and learning new parts in such a short amount of time is always hard. Alicia believes she’s in good enough shape to able to complete her part in the routine, but it’s still going to be challenging. She’s always trying her best. Alicia explains that going Division 1 actually makes her have more fun with the season rather than stressing out as much as she would if the team were still in Division 2.

Goffstown Varsity Cheer head coach, Kati Goudouros recognizes the time the team has spent re-working the routine and rebuilding stunt groups. She believes that all the changes have helped to make the team “more motivated” and sees the biggest challenge for the team as training the new flyers due to all the flyers from the previous season graduating. On moving up to Division One, Kati says, “the competition is way more intense and getting our skills to that level means more jump work and tumbling work.” Kati believes that the best aspect of the team is how much the team supports each other especially within last couple of weeks. The team has really brought out their “firecracker” and are able to appreciate each other.