With the addition of the football team comes the larger and even better cheerleading teams. Tryouts were just completed on May 15 and the 2010-2011 cheerleading team was selected to grace the sidelines for football as well as the men’s and women’s basketball games.
“The excitement level for GSU cheerleading has never been higher with the addition of football at the Georgia Dome,” head cheerleading coach Brooke Svoboda said after seeing the tryouts. “We have a diverse team with improved skill levels. We will be working hard on new routines and cheers to help add to the game day experience.”
The coed squads will feature a 32-member team at home football games, and split squads at each home basketball game. The team comes from six states and 21 different Georgia towns.
Team captain Micah Marquette is one of the returning members and has seen first hand the improvements and the increase in school spirit.
“Having football means the school is now complete and helps us compete in recognition among all the schools in this area,” Marquette said. “I was just at the Mall of Georgia in my Georgia State tee-shirt and one man approached me and told me he was a graduate and was so excited we were finally getting football. In another store, a recent grad from a couple years ago came up and spoke to me about how excited he was we were starting the football team. His girlfriend came over and talked about how great it was, too. So, everywhere you go in GSU gear, people share the enthusiasm now.”
The cheer teams put in a lot of work to get ready, too. They train on strength and conditioning, as well as tumble and dance routines through the summer and then report for their team camp in early August. The team goes away for three or four days to work on all the routines and put in their game plan just like teams do. In season, the cheer team practices 3-5 days a week.
The cheerleaders receive scholarship support and have access to a nutritionist, a personal trainer, a conditioning coach, as well as use of the state of the art weight room in the Sports Arena during the season. Among the requirements to make the team are being able to display various tumbling, dance, and stunting skills.
The team competes with other cheerleading squads in the spring at the NCA Nationals in Daytona Beach, Fla. The GSU squad has finished in the Top 10 in the nation in two of the past three years and takes legitimate pride in their abilities.
While there are a lot of new cheerleaders, a solid nucleus returns from last year’s basketball squad to lead the way.
Coach Contact Information
Brooke Svoboda
Attn: Cheerleading
125 Decatur Street, Suite 201
Atlanta, GA 30303
Brooke.Svoboda@gmail.com
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