By Chris Cox 

Circle High School cheer coach Elaina Willhite says this year’s squad has a good mix of upperclassmen and underclassmen, with those upperclassmen really taking the reins and leading by example.

“We have a great leadership squad this year with six seniors,” she says. “They are all returning for their fourth year. They started together as freshmen and have continued all the way through. Bethanie, April, and Savannah have really led our team this year and cheered both seasons. My other three seniors came on at basketball season and have added a lot of support and leadership as well. Together they are very cohesive and work well together.”

One thing that Willhite believes makes her squad unique is the three sets of sisters on the Circle squad. 

“Two of my seniors have freshmen sisters and then I have a set of twins,” she says. “That’s real unique. It brings a lot of continuity and fun to our team.”

Willhite says the six seniors have done a good job preparing the underclassmen to take over the squad once they graduate. 

“They are all very good role models,” Willhite says. “I think as far as a group, the seniors have just made the younger girls feel really comfortable by being there for them outside of cheer. They really bring a lot to the table in terms of leadership inside and outside of the team.”

With a bigger and fairly experienced team, expectations were higher this year.

“We’ve asked them to move outside of their comfort zone,” she says. “We ask them to do extra and to do things that have not been done at our school before.”

While success in cheer is great, Willhite says she is very proud of her squad’s academic achievements and maturity outside of cheer. 

“If I had to guess, aside from one of the basketball teams, we probably have the highest cumulative GPAs,” she says. “They are smart in how they approach life in general. They all have extremely high ethics and morals.”

The Circle High School Cheer squad includes Sage Dutton (Sr.), Savannah Engles (Sr.), co-captain Bethanie Goldsmith (Sr.), Malia Iseman (Sr.), Caris Mosier (Sr.), co-captain April Patton (Sr.), Brooklyn Terrones (Jr.), Gabriella Walker (Jr.), Annie Chen (So.), Riley Bump (Fr.), Carlee Goldsmith (Fr.), Skylor Henry (Fr.), Ivy Patton (Fr.), Arabella Waldmeir (Fr.), and Madison Waldmeir (Fr.). The assistant coach is Allison Patton.