Many rumors and gossip have been circulating about the cheer team and their status as an official club on campus. The cheer team in recent years has been disorganized with the role of leader being changed almost every year.
Along with leadership changing so often, the team has incurred around $3000 in debt. The reason for the debt is not completely known with there being many rumors as to why. What is known,however, is that the debt occurred from previous members who are not currently part of the club or school. The new members had nothing to do with the debt, specifically the new
co-captains Andrea Davis and Macy Crabtree.
Andrea Davis and Macy Crabtree are freshmen at Eureka and were given their roles after the previous captain stepped down. While they are new to Eureka and the cheer team, Davis and Crabtree are working hard to help create a better future and image for the squad. They are doing this in a number of different ways.
First and foremost, to stay an active club on campus, they had to go through the proper channels and make a formal request. One of the requirements to be a club is to have an advisor. Advisors must be a full time member of the faculty, administration, or staff. They must also be available to offer assistance to the team if something beyond the control of the captains takes place. The new advisor of the team is Annie Kelvie.
There are many active clubs and organizations on campus for students to be a part of. If students are interested in taking a closer look at what Eureka College offers take a look at the article Time to Hit the Clubs by Ronnie Valverde. Students can also look on Eureka College’s website.
Davis and Crabtree as part of the process of being a club on campus also drafted a new constitution, which hasn’t been updated since around 10 years ago. The constitution lists all of the rules and regulations for being a member and is an agreement to abide by Eureka’s guidelines.
The second key issue that Davis and Crabtree are trying to resolve is the team’s debt. They have many different ideas of how to do this.
“We have plans of doing a cheer clinic with the middle school and start doing halftime routines at basketball games,” said Davis.
Doing the clinic will help them bring in more revenue for the team and bring awareness to it. The half time routines will also bring more awareness to the team and help bolster a better image for the squad.
“Around christmas we want to host a santa photo suite and bake sale to fundraise money for the team” said Crabtree.This will hopefully be another good opportunity for the team to help them recover from their debt.
The next step in their plan is to attend a meeting with professor Kelvie to set up a consistent schedule for their practices and upcoming events. Their hopes are that with a formal schedule in place, it will help them decide what needs to be done moving forward and open up more doors of opportunity in the future.
“Even though we were thrown into this role, please give us the benefit of the doubt and see what we have already been able to accomplish in the name of bettering the team” said Davis and Crabtree.
The two co-captains have plans to be able to do full halftime shows by next football season, as long as they can fundraise the money they need and have enough members. To support the team and help them reach their goals, keep an eye out around campus for flyers announcing the different fundraisers and events they plan to have.
