On September 10, the night before the annual Battle of Q Street, the varsity cheer team decorated posters and made treat bags for all of the senior football players in honor of the upcoming senior night. 

Every year, the varsity cheer team does something special for the senior football players. In the past, that has consisted of chalking and decorating each player’s driveway with their number and a “good luck” message. However, due to the rainy weather all week, the team instead decided to paint posters for all 29 seniors that said “Rise Up,” referring to the football team’s theme for this year. Each poster included the player’s number, the “Rise Up” message and other football decorations and drawings. 

Along with the posters, each player also received a decorated goody bag with an assortment of snacks, from granola bars and brownies, to candy and gatorade. A tiny football stress ball was also added and a mini green pom pom for the moms with a note that said “football mom, gameday ready”. 

“We all split up into five or six groups and then each group was assigned four houses to decorate,” senior Delaney Cutler said. “The whole process could get done a lot faster once we divided ourselves.”

This year, the process of decorating the houses looked a little different. With COVID-19 in the picture, the girls wore masks when arriving at each house and during their time there. In the past, when the team chalked the driveways, they didn’t have to ring the doorbells. This year, since they had posters to hang up, the girls had to go to the doors and check with parents that doing so was okay. 

“Honestly, I think the parents enjoy it more than anyone,” varsity cheer sponsor Kelsey Chastain said. “It’s a special thing to do for them and a good way to promote good school spirit and culture.”

Unfortunately at the rivalry game, Millard West was defeated by Millard South, but that didn’t take away from the special moment of honoring the seniors and parents before the game.

“I had no idea the cheer team was going to be doing this,” senior football player Joseph Hughes said. “It was really cool and a nice surprise from all of them. The rest of the season is looking great for us, and we’ll take all of the support we can get.” 

In the meantime, the Wildcats will continue to bring their all for the remainder of their football season with the support of their best “cheerleaders” alongside them on the field.

 “We know how lucky we are to be able to still cheer at games and have a competition season,” Chastain said. “We’re making the most of it every way we can.”

The varsity cheer team will continue to cheer on the Wildcats at each game and will be preparing in the upcoming months for their competition season. Millard West will be traveling to Westside to play Creighton Prep on September 25.