Coach Megan Schuman, like many of her coaching peers, was forced to make major adjustments to nearly every aspect of coaching, scheduling and practicing due to covid-19 protocols. For the Northwest cheer squad, it meant making sacrifices and getting a late start to the season. “This season started off super late for us. We didn’t even have tryouts until June. Usually in June we are off to cheer camp. From the very beginning we were honest with the team and told them we couldn’t promise them a ‘normal’ season and we all knew that at any given moment things could change. As a team, we just wanted to be ambassadors of Northwest and support Northwest athletics somehow,” said Schuman.

Coach Schuman said she is proud for this squad not giving up thanks to some outstanding senior leadership. “We had six amazing seniors on the squad; Allie Heck, Karisma Mackey, Andrea Reaser, Kylee Turner, KeAudra Webster, and Makayla Wheeler,” said Schuman. “A lesson this team learned is that a well-rounded team needs many different kinds of leaders.”

Schuman said seeing how close they became over the course of a season was what she enjoyed the most. “To me, the biggest compliment is when someone tells me how close my team is or that my cheerleaders all seem to be best friends-you never see just one of them by themselves,” said Schuman.

With tryouts complete, Schuman expects to have 29 squad members next year with 20 of those being returning cheerleaders.