Kelli Saunders
Staff Writer
After many years of Costa cheerleading, this is the first time boys have joined the team.
Mira Costa juniors Taylor Freitag and Zach Moore joined the cheer team, being the first boys ever to be on the team at Costa.
“Never in my life did I think I’d join cheerleading,” Freitag said. “I didn’t even think I would for pretty much the first 8 weeks of this school year.”
Though both play additional sports, they were able to make it work with both of their schedules. Moore’s volleyball season does not conflict with cheer, however Freitag’s football season overlaps. He will continue to play and practice with football in the fall, but will join cheer as soon as his season ends.
“Even though I am cheering now I am still definitely going to continue with football,” Freitag said. “There is no question about that because football is still my number one sport and I will not stop playing it.”
Moore and Freitag do not have previous experience cheering, but are able to contribute their strength to the team. Stunts that normally take four girls to complete can be done with one boy. They also have the ability to launch the flyers three to four feet higher than the other girls could.
“Since boys naturally have more muscle than girls, we are able to do many different tricks than they were able to before,” Moore said. “We take some pressure off of the girls and give them more power.”
Travis, the current coach of the Mira Costa cheer team, and many of the girls on the team encouraged the boys to join the team to progress their skills. Since then, Freitag and Moore have been practicing with the team for 3 weeks.
“I had known many of the cheerleaders before and they really wanted us to join,” Freitag said. “I had thought about it before but actually doing it was harder than it seemed.”
Cheer recently qualified as a CIF sport so they will now compete against other high schools for school rankings.
For the future, Freitag and Moore hope to continue progressing in the sport and possibly accept scholarships to cheer in college. They want to enjoy their experience and perfect new tricks for their team.
“I already know that I will enjoy my experience on this team,” Freitag said. “It can only get better from here and I’m so excited for the opportunities it brings.”
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