Athena Kendra Nidoy,a senior at CKHS Is in her second year on the cheer team. ” I love to cheer. My older sister is the one that inspired me to cheer and she kind of forced me to try out my junior year.” Nidoy is the captain of the varsity cheer team. “It’s very stressful  a lot of responsibilities but I like it.” The CK cheer program cheers on the football team at both away and home games.

“My favorite part of home games would have to be the band and that we have a big crowd compared to away games.” The cheer team is split into three squads, Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Competition. “My favorite part of cheer is stunting. I love both, football games (sideline) and competition” Last year the cheer team made it all the way to state where they placed second

“We want to win in this year. We lost to Mount Si. last year and we are ready to take that first place trophy.” The tryouts for cheer are either in April or May and last until March. “We have to start early to get ready for football season and we start learning our routine then, too. A competition routine is filled with stunts, jumps, a cheer, tumbling, and a dance. Our routine is filled this year with a lot of stunts and most of them are in need of a very high skill level.”

The team started preparing for competition in August; they had a full day of choreography clinic. They learned their whole routine in one day. “I’m going to motivate my team the best I can to get them in the mindset of winning state.”

Athena has only been a cheerleader for two years (both of them at Central Kitsap High). “It is very hard to be a cheerleader!” The cheer team is hard at work. They practice for up to three hours, three times a week. The team is the number one supporter of the cougars! “GO COUGS!”

ABOVE: Team before the Mt. Tahoma game.

BELOW: Athena hates push-ups at games but knows she needs to stay in shape for stunts.