The cheerleading team has a new head coach, Molly Parsons. Molly has been teaching at the Schuyler Preschool for eleven years. Coach Parsons was also cheerleader for the Schuyler Central High School from 2005-2008 and she was cheer captain her junior and senior year. Coach Parsons also cheered for three years at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and was captain for two years. One of her favorite cheer memories from her senior year in high school was when “we were in the football playoffs at Crete, it was sleeting and snowing and we were losing (by a lot), but the crowd and the student section never stopped cheering,” shared Coach Parsons. 

In Nebraska stunting is now legalized, which puts the cheerleader behind from what other states have been doing long before. One of the biggest goals Coach Parsons wants for the cheerleaders when it comes to stunts is to “increase our stunting confidence and skills, to hopefully encourage more crowd interaction and school spirit!” Coach Parsons went on to explain that the biggest challenges for cheerleaders are that it “requires mental toughness, physical endurance and 100% trust in your teammates and yourself.”

One of the hardest parts of staying positive at games is the enthusiasm of the crowd. Coach Parsons shares how “it is hard for cheerleaders to continue to get out in front of the crowd with little to no interaction.” It’s not about the score, it’s about the fans. “It can be so difficult watching your classmates and friends giving everything they have out on the court or field, and the bleachers are empty, silent or both,” said Coach Parsons.