COVID has impacted so many student-athletes and tearing away the experience of participating in high school extracurricular activities. It has shortened seasons, postponed, cancelled and made students sit out from events. The protocols of testing each student-athlete before matches has excluded key players on teams and held teams/players back from reaching their full potential. It is a shame that this generation of student-athletes have had to deal with this and will never be able to have those moments back. As we have gotten further into the school year, the norms and regularity of the pre-covid era has began to surface. With sports coming back, fans being allowed to attend events, and teams to reunite it truly has been long overdue.
Fort Vancouver’s Cheer team was impacted by the COVID era, but this year they have resurged back onto the scene. With most rebuilds taking several seasons to get back on track, it certainly is not the case for the Trapper’s cheer team. They have fast tracked their rebuild, surpassing 30 members on the squad and though they did not make it to State the gave a valiant effort. They were limited to competing in only 2 competitions and overcame so much this season.
The teams mantra this year “Adapt. Overcome. Achieve. Together.” It was apparent that Coach Val understood that what this cheer team went through was not ordinary. Her approach was to address it head on, and that truly resonated throughout the team. They adapted in building their team numbers back up, they competed when they were able to overcome the obstacles, and in doing so they achieved the ultimate goal of getting back to doing what they love together.
