As a mother of a seventh-grade cheerleader, Beth Cannon saw everything her daughter did to promote boys sports.
The cheerleaders cheered and decorated lockers for the boys in football and basketball. But something was missing. No organized cheer group was cheering for the girls sports. So Cannon did something about it.
For the first time this year, seventh- and eighth-grade girls formed a pep squad to cheer for girls home volleyball and basketball games.
"Last year, when my daughter was a cheerleader, she had friends that she couldn't cheer for," Cannon said. "So this year, I decided to donate my time so the girls sports would have a cheer squad."
After approaching Licking Valley Middle School Principal Scott Beery and receiving his approval, Cannon put the word out and soon had six girls interested. In addition to her eighth-grade daughter, Allyson Cannon, classmates Siaira Keirns, Passion Smith and Katie Cooperrider, and seventh-graders Courtney Cottrell and Madison Jarrett became the pep squad.
They cheer only at home games, but they also decorate the girls' lockers, hand out water bottles and make up candy bags for the girls. Amy Rine is the assistant coach.
"I believe that this has given the girls an opportunity to make friends with girls in the sports programs that they normally wouldn't interact with," Cannon said.
The pep squad is not school-funded, and there were no tryouts. The girls' parents bought the uniforms, and they had a car wash to raise money for their warm-up suits. Everything else is by donation.
Cannon is hoping this can be continued in the 2012-13 school year at the high school.
"The major goal is not only to give the girls a chance to do this, but also have it qualify for service hours as well," Cannon said.
