Duncan senior cheerleader Erin Kirkland got her start in cheerleading back in middle school. But, unlike others on the Duncan team, Kirkland didn’t cheer on the middle school team. Instead, she was cheering competitively.
“Competitive cheer is more structured, and you just compete instead of cheering for other teams,” she explains. “School cheer is mainly just sideline and cheering for football, basketball, and wrestling. But we (Duncan cheer) are actually going to start competing this year.”
Going from competitive cheer to the sidelines was a change Kirkland explains.
“Adjusting to sideline wasn’t hard but it’s definitely different,” she says. “The mindset is just different. Instead of just executing a routine you have to keep the crowd involved while performing.”
While it was an adjustment at first, Kirkland says she loves game days.
“I like sideline cheer because I like involving the student section,” Erin says. “I really like crowd involvement in general. We will do chants that involve the crowd and it’s really fun when they do it with us. I feel like that gets everybody more excited.”
Erin says she also a creative person who like to draw and write but, for the most part, everything she does revolves around cheer.
“Cheer is my life,” she says.
She hopes to keep cheer a part of her life after high school as well. She is planning on trying out for the OU cheer squad and if that doesn’t work out, she wants to cheer at Central Oklahoma.
