Our cheerleading team is ready to cheer at their full potential this year. Now that we are starting a new year at Apopka high school without obstacles like COVID-19, which has proven to be quite onerous, we can finally enjoy spending time with each other as something we no longer take for granted. The team has been working hard all summer and is eager to start this year’s new season.

“Cheerleading has affected me in a positive way. I enjoy mentoring young adults and helping them get involved in activities at school and in their community. It makes me so happy to watch [the girls] grow over the course of four years and help them reach their goals,” said Ms. Bercegeay, the head cheerleading coach at APK. Loren Sutton, a first-time cheerleader and sophomore at Apopka High School, also seems to agree. “I wanted to be more involved with my school, and have a way to have, lots of fun at the same time. Cheerleading has allowed me to show my school pride and represent the blue and white. My favorite part about cheerleading is all the girls on the team coming together and having fun, we have a fun time repping, and supporting at our school games.” 

Ms. Berceageay further elaborates on why she enjoys coaching cheerleading at Apopka High School. “Six years ago, an email came across my desk, and our athletic director was looking for a head cheerleading coach. I was unsure if I was qualified but I was interested in getting involved at Apopka. I reached out to find out what the qualifications were and one thing led to another. After hearing about the job, I decided to try it out and see if this would be something I would enjoy. Well, six years later I am still coaching cheerleading and having a blast spreading cheer around Apopka and at our games.”

However, not everything has been all puppies and daisies for our cheer team. They’ve faced a lot of hardships to achieve where they are now. If you don’t know, cheerleading is a very taxing sport that requires lots of agility, strength, patience, and most importantly, practice in order to do flips and tricks and memorize choreography. “Some challenges I have been through were definitely COVID-19 and not being able to work with my group in the same way during such a long period of time. We work hard together and

play hard together. We laugh, we cry, and dance until our feet hurt. I love being at practice, pep rallies, community service events, and especially games. I love going on road trips with my team. They are always well-behaved, and we have a great time on our adventures. I also love summertime [when] we can all come together as one big team. It makes me happy to see all of my team together as ONE. Watching my girls grow as a team and hopefully winning a championship,” says the head coach.

Not being able to practice 1 on 1 last year, having to social distance, and wear masks creates a lot of issues but they’ve conquered that now and didn’t let that affect how they cheer. I know we are all excited to see what this year has in store for us now that they can finally put their all into everything.