Elkhorn High’s annual Gatorade scrimmage invites Jr. Cheer Clinic to perform at their halftime as a Elkhorn High tradition.

Antler tradition is important at Elkhorn High and the cheer girls believe that it should be carried on.

 “I think it should be continued because it brings a lot of people to the football games, as well as makes people want to try out for cheer when they get to the high school and is a good fundraiser,” junior Parker Stevens said. 

Keeping this tradition, the Antler cheer team spent the first week of school preparing the Jr. girls for their halftime performance.

Practices were held after school in the commons, as the girls divided into their groups to learn their cheers. 

“We were teaching them three cheers and we’d take breaks in between,” freshman Paige Plathe said.

At practices the girls are split up into groups, each mentor has about six girls that they have to teach the cheers to.

During practices the older girls would play fun games including “Duck, Duck, Goose,” and “Little Sally Walking” to entertain the young ones. 

Plathe mentioned how fun it was to work with the girls, even though sometimes the little girls had a short attention span and would seek their parents when antsy. The Antler cheer team still enjoyed this opportunity to work with the Jr. cheerleaders.

Teacher and cheer coach, Staci Stevens believes that the girls were mature when learning the cheers. They learned the same cheers used for tryouts at Elkhorn High but modified depending on the girls’ experience level. 

All 3 cheers were learned in the three days which impressed the older cheer girls and coaches.

This successful and enjoyable tradition will be back around next year so other cheer girls can experience this bonding activity.  

“I think it’s a great tradition we try to continue because it brings people from outside our community into our high school community. I mean it brought 75 extra families to the scrimmage,” Stevens said.