From sideline to stunt season, the Paly cheer team dedicates countless hours year-round perfecting various routines, cheers, and performances — not only for the Paly community, but also for their own competitions. In the past, Paly Cheer has made it to CCS, State, and even National level competitions. Despite these accomplishments, many overlook the intense difficulty, precision, and time commitment that goes into their work, often failing to recognize cheer as a rigorous athletic activity. From the stands, we only get a glimpse of the skill and dedication that drives the team’s success.
Following years of strong performance, something went wrong last season. Due to internal conflicts in ideology on the team, the healthy environment collapsed, leading to damaged relationships and poor mental health. This eventually led to the departure of some players. With a new coach, this season will serve as a period of rebuilding and redemption for the cheer team.
Paly Cheer has a long history of achievements and excellence. From being frequent participants at regionals to becoming CCS champions in 2019 and national runners-up in 2012, the team has set a high standard for success. The cheerleaders practice daily and work hard on their craft year-round. The team has always had a strong foundation, including a supportive community and a dedicated group of athletes who are committed to maintaining their impressive track record.
This strong foundation extends beyond just practice and competition. The Paly Cheer team fosters an environment of camaraderie and teamwork, where each member is encouraged to support one another both on and off the mat. For example, a major part of cheer is stunting, an effort that requires trust and strength for a team to execute safely. Their dedication is evident in their attention to detail, from perfecting routines to mastering stunts, and their commitment to excellence is mirrored by the unwavering support from their coaches and families.
Moreover, the team’s success is not only measured by their trophies but also by the positive impact they have on the Paly community. Their performances are aimed to boost school spirit and bring together students, staff, and parents, creating a vibrant and united atmosphere at football games and spirit events.
Despite their impressive track record, this past 2023-2024 season proved to be a rough patch for the team. So what went wrong last season that led to the team’s breakdown, and initiated the need for a team rebuild?
Last year, several key members of the cheer team quit the team following a rift between the coach and athletes, according the multiple sources from the team. The exit of these experienced athletes, many of whom held major roles on the team, had a significant impact on team morale. This includes senior and former captain Lily Jeffrey, who believes that the primary issue came down to team dynamic and lack of change.
“There was a lot that went on that made a lot of teammates feel disrespected,” Jeffrey said. “A lot of us addressed our coach with our concerns, and we didn’t see improvement, so we decided that it was best to take a break from the team.”
Furthermore, there were a variety of additional motives that drove players to leave. The team had extremely long practices with few breaks, strict dress codes, and increased fees. Above all, a breakdown in team unity and spirit left many athletes feeling unmotivated to put in time and effort to improve. What once was supposed to be a fun athletic outlet and activity became a place of high pressure and drama that was damaging to mental health.
Alumni and former Paly cheerleader Isabelle Linder participated in cheer her senior fall, but ended up quitting before the season ended.
“Within the team, there was a lot of drama, and a lot of the cheerleaders felt like going to practice and cheering just stopped being fun because it was always so dramatic,” Linder said. “There was just a lot of pressure coming from multiple sources, and after a while it turned into too much and people had enough.”
Throughout last season, many players reported that the team was chaotic and disorganized, creating a highly stressful environment. There was a lack in both structure and communication that heightened these issues.
Routines, including stunts and choreography, were often introduced only three days before a game, leading to a high-pressure rushed learning process. This approach was frequently taken by the coach, and led to frustration among captains and team members who felt overwhelmed. Many raised questions about why they were learning these routines in such a short period of time.
“The team was stressed out because we all thought, ‘why are we doing this last minute when you’ve had the choreography for two weeks now, stuff like that, like the communication between the coach, captains, and the team was bad,” Linder said.
As a result of these issues, the captains ended up adopting a lot of coaching responsibilities, including stunt training and developing choreography. Yet this was not a long term solution, and the vague lines of responsibility further created tensions and confusion on the team, putting the captains in a complicated position with unclear roles and expectations.
“There wasn’t really a clear split between the role of the coach and the captains, so the captains ended up doing a lot of our coaching, and while they did a great job, there was no clear split of responsibility, which also wasn’t communicated to the team,” Linder said.
Decisions made by the captains were frequently overturned by the coach last minute, such as choreography or counts, which added to the already high stress levels.
“The team environment wasn’t the best, mostly because there was a big split between captains and the rest of the team since the captains were doing the majority of the coaching, so they were usually seen almost like coaches,” a former cheer member who wished to remain anonymous said. “This caused drama because if people were unhappy with the coach, they kind of took it out on the captains as well.”
Pressure to perform perfectly was also a significant issue. Even in the short learning periods, the team was under an expectation to perform to perfection and invest extreme effort at all times. During practice, there were frequent threats of exclusions from games, stunts, or routines if something wasn’t executed to the highest degree of the former coach’s satisfaction. The time crunches often resulted in frustration if people couldn’t pick things up fast enough, and caused discourse and tensions between teammates.
Junior Jazmyn Seeger participated in cheer her freshman and sophomore year, and explained her thoughts on what caused discontent.
“It just started to become a little bit controlling in my personal experience, and there were a lot of disagreements on the team,” Junior Jazmyn Seeger said.
“It started to become less of a team and the community, and the environment felt a little hostile.”
These expectations or perfection negatively impacted the team environment. The team experienced internal division due to differing priorities.
“There were also a lot of different ambitions on the team, some people really wanted to do well and put a lot of effort into it, and some just wanted a fun activity after school, which caused a lot of drama among teammates with rumors and stuff.”
The team reached out to the coach multiple times about restructuring practice, improving coaching, and more effective communication. Despite expressing these concerns, the team saw no change.
“There were plenty of meetings of members going to the coach expressing unhappiness about the coaching, discussing issues, you know, anything about better planning and communication, but nothing really changed, and when this became a pattern is when people considered quitting,” Linder said.
“There was an incident with the fire alarm or fire drill, there was a fire drill, the alarm went off in the building, no one was sure whether it was drill or real alarm, and the team was not allowed to evacuate, they were told by their coach to just keep practicing as normal,” a former cheerleader who wished to stay anonymous said. “That was sort of the last straw, after that people just quit the team. Once that happened, it was sort of a chain reaction. Once all the captains got really upset with the coach due to lack of communication, they quit, and after that a big part of the team quit as well.”
Despite these shortcomings, Paly Cheer is beginning to spark once more. Now, with hopes of reviving the Paly Cheer program underway, this upcoming year marks a fresh start with changes in leadership and structure. At the center of this rebuild is the introduction of new coach Helene Gurewitz, who aims to introduce new approaches to the team. With big shoes to fill from last year, Gurewitz is excited to usher in a new era of Paly cheer.
“I hope that I can bring a new energy to Paly cheer because while I may not know what the team was like in previous years, I know that new leadership signifies a lot of new opportunities.” Gurewitz said.
Gurewitz plans to focus the cheer team’s efforts on events focused around Paly’s community at large, such as extending the team’s outreach beyond just football games by participating in upcoming philanthropic events in the area.
“I really want us to focus on empathy, compassion, and giving back to the community by cheering for more sports than just football and participating in philanthropy events in and around Palo Alto,” Gurewitz said. “While football season is super fun, I’m trying to emphasize cheering at more female-led sports and philanthropy events.”
In addition, Gurewitz plans to expand Paly cheer’s leadership in order to give athletes more responsibility and chances to help than in the past. Gurewitz believes that the introduction of new leadership can signal new chances for the team to succeed as a group. Gurewitz’s expansion plans include the introduction of three new leadership positions for athletes: Team Manager, Outreach Director, and Social media director.
Above all, Gurewitz maintains that her most important objective is to help the team develop as a whole, and to help everyone reach their fullest potential. Her philosophy focuses on teamwork and trust, and a love for cheerleading that she hopes she can spread to the athletes.
“I hope that the team finds as much joy and passion for cheerleading as I do,” Gurewitz said. “Of course, having some really cool halftime routines and winning a few competitions wouldn’t hurt, but my main focus is developing team skills both on and off the mat.”
With all of these changes taking place, it marks the beginning of a new era in cheer. Many athletes are excited for this next season and looking forward to everything that they can achieve with their new coach. Seeger is entering her third year of cheer and believes that Gurewitz is providing an opportunity for the team to reunite.
“So far it is going pretty well with our new coach, and all the people that came back are obviously the people that really want to be there,” Seeger said. “We all persisted and all decided to come back so I think we are all trying to make it better this year and rebuild our team.”
Even though the cheer team is back together, some issues still remain. Unfortunately, the hard work that cheerleaders put in to perfecting their craft is often undermined and undervalued by others who don’t recognize the commitment and dedication that cheer demands from athletes. The dedication of cheer athletes is no more apparent than in the huge expenses cheer athletes are expected to pay each year just to be a part of the team.
Cheer is one of the only sports that isn’t subsidized by Paly Athletics, causing cheer to be one of the most costly sports to participate in at Paly. Between uniforms, travel and entry fees, students will often pay over $3,000 for a three-season year of cheer. These costs are not suggested donations to cheer, but rather are required for participation. This is the key difference separating cheer from other sports at Paly, as no other Paly athletes are required to pay for their own uniforms and travel.
In addition to spending large amounts each season, cheerleaders are expected to raise a minimum of $120 for cheer by selling chocolate bars on their own time. No other Paly sports have individual athletes fundraise for their sports at a similar rate at all. Cheerleaders need to spend hours of their own time marketing products in order to meet donation quotas. Money raised by the team goes into buying uniforms, bus fares and other expenses.
Gurewitz and the Paly cheer program are working to combat this issue, which has held membership back in previous years, but she emphasizes that the best way to bring change is through participation, and she encourages the Paly community to get involved in helping the team.
“We try to make cheer as accessible as possible, but it is a very expensive sport meaning we rely heavily on fundraiser and athlete donations to fund everything from our uniforms to tumbling or stunting clinics,” Gurewitz said. “Showing up to the various events we will be cheering at is always appreciated and make sure to keep a lookout for our competition schedule so you can support the sport that supports all others.”
A key factor in boosting the rebuild of Paly cheer is support from the Paly community. Although Paly has a strong school spirit culture, cheer fails to take a place in the spotlight. The lack of support and recognition can often have a negative effect on athletes
“In the past, we’ve felt like there’s little crowd engagement with us, which can be difficult if there are other student leaders at football games, they can’t hear us cheer, or don’t know the cheers,” Jeffrey said. “But I do think that it would be fun if there was more of a connection between the student section and then the cheer team.”
So why has cheer been sidelined in Paly athletic culture? Cheer captain and Paly Senior Lily Jeffrey believes that cheerleading needs to be recognized as a real sport to gain more attention.
“I know in the past, a lot of the members on our team, including myself, have felt cheer isn’t seen as a real or difficult sport,” Jeffrey said. “At football games, what people see is us doing more simple things on the sidelines, or what are seemingly easy routines or skills, but what a lot of people don’t see is our competition season.”
Jeffrey’s frustration is shared by many on the team. Despite the physical and mental demands of cheerleading, the perception that it’s an “easier” or “lesser” sport persists. This issue can be very frustrating for the athletes, as despite the huge amounts of work they put in, they are never fully appreciated for their work.
“I personally have had a lot of people tell me, cheer doesn’t seem that hard,” Jeffrey said. “Why do you have to practice for so long or why is it even considered a sport? I think that getting away from those comments and trying to understand that what we do is actually really difficult would be good for cheer’s image.”
Despite challenges, many returning athletes are excited to make a comeback in the upcoming season. Throughout her four years of cheer, senior Abigail Karel looks back fondly on her memories cheering for Paly and is excited for her final year on the squad.
“We have new coaches this year, for both JV and Varsity and we have had a great time getting to know them and our new team,” Karel said. “I’m really looking forward to this final football season and making lots of memories before I graduate.”
Jeffrey shares this sentiment, hoping that a fresh start will allow her final season to create more lasting memories.
“I’m really excited to be back on the team, and to experience senior night, I think it’ll be a good year to end my high school cheer experience.” Jeffrey said.
Despite setbacks at the end of last year, the team is prepared to move into a new era of Paly cheer, one that elevates and encourages its members. Two new coaches, a refocus on fun in cheer, and opportunities to branch out performances are making this year feel like the perfect new beginning for Paly cheer.
Audio Recording of Interview with senior Lily Jeffrey:
