Think you know Breanna Hope? There could be a few things about the senior that you don’t know. As a cheerleader for the Elizabethtown Panthers and a Pole Vaulter on the track and field team, she has just finished out her final season and is looking forward to the future.
Breanna Hope – I’ve been cheering since I was in first grade. My older sister cheered for little league football and I thought it looked like fun, so my dad put me and my sisters in it. It just kind of stuck with me, so I did it until little league season was over and my sister tried out for Middle-school cheerleading and so I actually tried to do a back hand spring by myself once in first grade, but it didn’t work out so well, but I saw her and it inspired me to do it and I did it in Middle-school, then quit in high school for two years and did (Color) Guard, then went back because I missed it a lot.
I was on the Rifle-line. Few people know that I play computer video games a lot. My favorite is “World of Warcraft.” I’m really big on computers. I love computers. I would love to play football someday. I use to joke with my dad that I would love to play quarterback on the team. I’ve been told that I have a wicked spiral. I’m, also on the track team and my events are Pole Vault and sometimes the 100, but that’s been only twice this season. I’ve only been doing this for my senior year. I joined right after the cheer season. Joella (Nall) inspired me to try it, because she always told me that I was really good in the air from tumbling in cheer so she thought that I’d be good at Pole Vaulting. I really do enjoy Pole Vaulting, because I like setting a goal for myself and trying to get over it. I feel like it’s something for me to strive for and I get frustrated a lot, because your run has to be on and your plant has to be on and you shoot your hips and a lot of timing is involved in that sport. I remember the first time I did it and it’s kind of like an adrenaline rush and it was so fun that I wanted t do it again, so it’s how you get up there, because you shoot yourself up so you can go further.
I was a Side Base on the cheer squad. My responsibilities were to make sure that you go up at the right time so that your Flyer goes up in the air and if her ankles are wobbly then you have to squeeze her foot so that she can get into position and you have to go up at the right times for transitions and the main part is catching her and if something happens and she hits the floor then you are in big trouble. My stunt group consists of me, Tori Smith, McKayla Brangers and Mollie Sherrard. Two seniors and two underclassman. The hazards of being a Base are that I have a scar from getting hit. I had to shave my eyebrow last year because I was elbowed in the face and it split it open. It happened in practice where it’s ten times more dangerous than competition. We do have a physical trainer, who works for the school in the event of an emergency, but we don’t have our own. The toughest part of being a varsity cheerleader is the advancement because you are trying to do things that are way above what a JV team would do and it involves much more muscle and more twists and turns. It’s more difficult. I started out learning cheer in the T K Stone system. Actually, going from that system to the high school system wasn’t really a difficult adjustment and it probably should have been worse because I took two years off and I went from Flyer in Middle-school to taking two years off and doing Guard and getting arm muscle from rifle and training. I didn’t have Mrs. Ball as a coach. I had Mrs. Janet and so she was just as hard as Joella and she would push you just as hard so you would be good for the high school team. I don’t think it’s that way anymore, because the coaches are different.
The comic relief on this year’s team is Molly (Sherrard). She just says silly stuff that’s random and when I’m basing with her we would have inside jokes like I would complain that my pinkie hurts and she’d say “You complain so much!” But Molly is just really outgoing and she just says what’s on her mind. I don’t really watch much TV, but if I could be on a reality show it would love to be on “Dance Moms.” My cheer role model through Middle-school was Keagan Keen. She cheers for WKU now and probably Kylie, her sister. I really looked up to them and I had their mom as a teacher in Middle-school and I tried to be like them, but then I quit cheering. My favorite guilty pleasure use to be Rolos like forever and ever. I use to LOVE Rolos. Now it’s like Gummy Bears.
To really make me mad, you would have to make fun of my family. I have three sisters and I’m one of the middle one’s. There’s Brandy, Britney, Bridgett and me. We were all in band together. I’m the only one that stayed in cheerleading. My favorite subject in school use to be science, but now it’s engineering. My least favorite is history. I didn’t take it this year. My favorite basketball player’s are the Harrison Twins from Kentucky. The future is bright for me because I’m moving to Florida and I’m going to the University of Central Florida. I tried out for cheer there, but I didn’t make it. I didn’t know the school fight song and all and I didn’t get to go to the clinics and learn what they are doing because my Grandpa died. So, I’m definitely going to try out again next year because I want to cheer in college because I really love Flying and I love Coed stunting and I’ve been trying to teach my boyfriend, but he’s not really into cheering.
