If you’ve been to any of this year’s football games at the newly remodeled Apple Bowl, you have seen it, or rather, not seen it. The WHS cheerleaders are now tucked down below the student bleachers, nearly hidden from view and sandwiched between a fence and a line of sweaty football players.

As they cheer, they are all but invisible to the spectators. The only evidence of their presence can be seen when the student section loudly chants the cheer they initiate.

The cheerleaders position on the field makes it difficult for them to coordinate their cheers with the game.

“We have no view really of the field in front of us. We’re basically behind football players. We can’t really tell if we’re on offense or defense,” junior cheerleader Melaina Cook said. “Also, cheering up into the student section were way lower than they are, which were not really used to. It’s hard to get them involved all the time with cheers.”

The problem begins with the remodel of the Apple Bowl. When the stands above the locker room, as well as the locker room, were designed, performing space for the cheerleaders was one of the little details that slipped through the cracks, Director of Athletics James Beeson said. 

Cheerleaders used to cheer on boxes in front of the student section, allowing them to see the field and the spectators. The boxes stood near the fence that separated the field from a walkway. Now, there is still a fence that borders the field, but directly on the other side of that fence is a three to four-foot drop to the locker room entrance. This means that if the cheerleaders were to put their boxes in their original position, they would put themselves at risk of falling nearly eight feet onto concrete.

“[The risk of injury] is just not something that risk management would allow that to take place,” Beeson said.

This eight-foot drop is the root of the cheerleading conundrum. If the cheerleaders are moved away from the fence, they would be at risk of being slammed into by a player straying from the painted boundaries of the football field. If they are next to the fence they risk severe injury.

The final proposal would be to move the football team, student section, and cheerleaders to the other side of the field. This would allow the cheerleaders to use their boxes safely, but would require a major change in WHS tradition, which rarely goes over easily with students and athletes. Beeson said attempts have been made to move the football team to the opposite side of the field, but those efforts were not received well by the players or coaches.

Cook expressed her disappointment with the issue. “It’s frustrating. We put in a lot of time and effort into being able to support our team, and it’s not really something for us, it’s for other people.”