Many students have activities they participate in or hobbies they like to do outside of the school environment. For sophomore Lauryn Beaty, her hobby is competitive cheerleading. Beaty was only three years old when she started in gymnastics, and that turned her to start competitive cheer when she was five.

Her first team was in Paoli, Indiana. Now, she is involved with the Full Out program in Jasper, Indiana and is on a team called Lady Lim3.

Her team is comprised of 27 girls, and they are very successful. They are second in the nation currently, which is their highest award. Beaty has traveled as far as Orlando, Florida for cheer competitions.

She likes that she can be a part of something where she gets to travel, and she enjoys meeting new people at competitions. On the other hand, Beaty doesn’t like how much she has to miss out on school events.

In a week, Beaty usually practices two times for two hours. However, her coach can add more practices if they have a big competition coming up. On a normal practice day, they first start with stretching and warming up by doing what is in their routine. Then, they usually go over the routine as many times as they can.

These practices are for them to prepare for their competitions. A competition day can be very busy for Beaty and her team.

“We wake up early and eat a healthy breakfast. Then, we go back to our hotel room to get ready for the competition. We are normally expected to meet two hours early, and at that time, we all check in with our team mom and wait until it’s time to go backstage to warm up. That normally takes an hour to get through, and then we get in line to go on stage. After competing, we wait until we have awards to find out what we placed,” said Beaty.

In the future, Beaty would like to continue cheering in college, but is undecided where.

“I don’t know where, but I have always watched the IU cheerleaders and the Alabama cheerleaders,” said Beaty.  

Beaty has been taught perseverance from cheer beyond what you learn about just the cheer leading.  

“The advice I can give someone who wants to get involved in competitive cheer is that you need to be dedicated to cheer, and you need to love what you are doing,” said Beaty.

Story by Faith Wilder