By Tessa Nacke
As you step into the bleachers on Friday night out onto the football field, you hear thunderous cheers from the audience. In front of the student section, Senior Vivian Hennessey leads the crowd.
At age six, Hennessey knew cheer was her passion. Hennessey has been cheering her whole life, progressing from All-Star cheer to Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) Pep Squad.
“I started [loving cheer when] I saw it on TV, my family [was watching] USC football, and I saw their song girls on TV and I knew that I wanted to do that,” she said.
Even as a freshman, Hennessey was already setting high expectations for herself. Former advisor, Tara Bearden, knew that Hennessey was meant for stardom. As a flyer, that’s a lot of pressure.
“My love has always been sideline and coming back here for high school made me want to cheer in college so much more because I wanted that sideline environment more than competing,” Hennessey said.
Hennessey is the embodiment of cheer. Peppy, encouraging and tough. So, it was no surprise that Hennessey was offered a spot on the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) All-Girl Cheer Team.
“I know some girls that go [to CU Boulder] and I know a girl on the team. And so I had a pretty good idea of what the program was like, and kind of the values that I have the same in my life and my career,” Hennessey said.
The tryout process was rigorous, and consisted of three rounds. Video submissions, in-person tryouts and an interview. The first round consisted of first impressions, and Hennessey was confident in her skills.
“You submit videos of the skills that they request, [such as] stunting, tumbling, their fight song, and then from there you get selected to go to the in person tryout,” Hennessey said.
The second round was the in-person tryout. The judges selected cheerleaders from the video submissions to move on, essentially cutting the pool in half.
“When you’re in person, you really only have one shot and the crazy thing is that you get your stunt group that day,” Hennessey said.
An all-girl stunt group consists of four people. A main base, side base, backspot and flyer. This stunt group works together to ‘hit’ stunts. It can take months to completely trust your stunt group, so this added extra stress on Hennessey.
“If someone in my group maybe isn’t on the same level as me, that affects the whole group. So that was really the most nerve wracking part of getting in there,” Hennessey said.
The third round, the interview, took place right after the in-person tryout.
After many hours of suspenseful waiting, Hennessey received the email, welcoming her to the team.
“The feeling of reading the email was just so good. All that relief of months of waiting for the moment was finally over,” Hennessey said.
With this, Hennessey had become the first FVHS cheerleader to commit to a college team. Seeing as competitive cheer only became a sport six years ago, this means BIG for FVHS Pep Squad.
“[Pep Squad] had such a big impact on me. I feel like just Mrs. Bearden and the way that she kind of trains us to present ourselves…the coaches really taught me everything I know,” Hennessey said.
Pep Squad was a safe place for Hennessey, and she will never forget that.
“[My favorite memory] was the rainy football game…We haven’t always had the best like student section. But this year, it was so different,” she said, “It was just an experience that really made it so clear to me that I wanted to cheer in college, because it was the first time we really felt that environment of like the energy of everyone in the stands.”
In the future, Hennessey plans to major in business with an emphasis in marketing alongside cheer.
“I am so grateful to everyone that’s helped me. It’s not just coaches. It’s a lot of the team too. I mean, just the girls that I’ve been with have kept me here. And that’s made such a difference,” Hennessey said, “it’s fun to be the first [college cheerleader] I’m glad to represent my school in that way.”
