With just more than a month left before school starts, the Northview Chiefs cheerleaders led by captain Megan Ryan and co-captains Charleigh McPherson and Lauren Cloud are already preparing for the upcoming year that includes football and competitions.

The Chiefs cheerleaders began working on routines at the beginning of the summer focusing on their performance to open the school year.

Lauren Cloud, a co-captain of the Chiefs cheerleading squad, said the squad has been working hard to get their routines right.

“We began practicing the first week of summer,” Cloud said. “We practice three days a week for four hours each day, and make up our own routines.”

Each year, Northview holds an assembly to open the school year and the cheerleaders put on a performance.

Cloud said that the cheerleading squad is currently working to get their routine down in time for the beginning of school.

“Right now, we are working on our first day of school routine,” Cloud said. “We have an opening day assembly, and the cheerleaders always perform a routine.”

The routine’s difficulty has caught the eye Chiefs cheer coach Anna Barry.

Barry said the routine has really had to open the squad’s mind because of the work it requires.

“The routine really has much more work than what we normally do,” Barry said. “I think the girls has have to go into this with really open minds. I think they have stepped up to the challenge and have done a good job.”

Aside from their first-day routine, the Chiefs cheerleading squad will soon find a choreographer to help them add dancing to their routines.

Cloud said last year’s routines were more stunt focused, which will change this year.

“We usually do a lot of stunts, but this year, we are doing more dancing and limiting our stunts,” Cloud said. “When we went to competition last year, we were surprised to see how much more dancing it was than stunts. This year, we are going to find a choreographer to help us with our competition routines.”

This year’s competition squad, which will compete in November, will have more focus put on competing better in the qualifier.

Barry said she and co-coach Megan Carroll will be more attentive in who is on the competition squad.

“As far as why the tryouts will be harder,” Barry said. “We’re cutting down from 24 to 16 on the competition team; to make it easier to organize the routine, as well as, organizing food, transportation, and accommodations. Tryouts are open to both the varsity and junior varsity team. Last year was our first time attending Nationals and I am proud of the hard-work that each and every girl on the team put forth. They made a good showing and I look forward to seeing what they can bring to the table this year.”

Barry said she was pleased with how they competed and acted at the event.

“I was proud of what the girls did last year,” Barry said. “Not only in how they competed, but their behavior as well. They were the best behaved group I have had, and I was proud to say I was their coach.”