Getting the student section fired up at the Homecoming football game (9/26), cheers stood  in front of the crowd without coaches.  Most cheerleaders would panic, but senior captains Maddie Sparrow and Taylor Hicks  stayed calm. 

The cheer team was without coaches that night because the previous coaches had left an hour before one of their practices, they weren’t able to find a pair of new coaches until the game against Del Norte (10/1).

Senior Amaya Smith who has been cheering for Poway High School for three years, and feels the coaches leaving ultimately benefited the team.

“We all knew we needed to learn to work together better, and grow closer simply for the good of the team.  On top of that Maddie and Taylor stepped up and filled their captain roles by uniting us, and keeping us comfortable without coaches,” Smith said.

Sparrow is one of two captains for cheer,  was stressed but still managed to keep her composure even under pressure.

“We were told our coaches had quit literally an hour before our practice started, at first we were confused, crying, we had no idea what the heck to do.  I realized Taylor and I had to do something in order to keep the team together. We kept people in order, adjusted our organization, and we tried keeping people’s spirits up, which I think worked, because we performed really well during the homecoming game,” Sparrow said.

Hicks had never experienced anything like this in all her 11 years of her cheering.

“I’ve been cheering for so long, and I’ve had my fair share of coaches, but had never been through an event like this.  It makes me happy though, knowing that the junior varsity and varsity team are going through this together. It’s made everyone closer and we all understand each other easier.t also taught me how to be a better leader,” Hicks said. 

Since the last coaches left, Coach Hope Myers and Coach Sandra Reyes have taken the reins of cheer and plans to lead them to success.  Coach Hope was a cheer coach that took her team to nationals Florida, and Coach Sandra is a Poway cheer Alumni.