A staple of basketball games, UVM Cheerleading energizes fans with dynamic routines while balancing a demanding schedule. 

About 60 students tried out for the team this season and 37 were selected, a much bigger squad than the usual 24 members, said senior captain Emma Trainer. 

She attributes the spike in interest to the team’s elevated social media presence over the last year, sharing behind-the-scenes insights, game day announcements and high-quality photoshoots with followers. 

Trainer has cheered for sixteen years, but said experience levels on the team vary widely.

“There are some people who have cheered as long as I have. Others are old gymnasts and others have no experience at all, and they have a great tryout and are willing to learn,” Trainer said.

The team has always been overwhelmingly female, and includes only one male cheerleader this year. 

“We’re always looking for more guys because they’re so useful stunting,” Trainer said, referring to the acrobatic lifts the team performs to launch teammates in the air as they assume a sequence of poses.

Cheer performs three routines at every basketball game held in Patrick Gym, with anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of fans in the audience. Despite practicing just twice a week, they rarely repeat their routines, keeping regulars excited to see their performances all season. 

On game days, cheerleaders coordinate matching hairstyles and arrive at Patrick Gym an hour early in green and gold uniforms with “Vermont” on their chests in a rhinestone border. 

The team has to work quickly to iron out any last-minute imperfections in their routines and make adjustments if any cheerleaders are absent.

“We’re ready for tipoff like two minutes beforehand, so [it’s] kind of crazy,” Trainer said.

The cheer team’s schedule picks up during America East conference playoffs when they travel with varsity basketball to their away games, in addition to home games.

Last season, they appeared at the first round of the women’s America East tournament at Patrick Gym before traveling with the team to Albany, N.Y. and Orono, Maine as they advanced to the finals. That same week, the squad also performed in three men’s basketball games at home. 

“The expectation that we give people at the beginning of the year is that they stay for spring break, because then the week after spring break is March Madness,” Trainer said.

If either UVM team makes the NCAA Division I basketball tournament, also known as March Madness, Cheer accompanies the team all over the country. However, only a small portion of the team can go.

“You can only have six people go if one of our teams go […] If the men and women go, we can have 12 people go, so that’s pretty selective,” Trainer said.

In the past two seasons, the men’s basketball team has gone to March Madness twice, and the women’s team once. 

In 2023, selected cheerleaders went to Milwaukee, Wis. for the men’s game against Marquette University before flying to the women’s game in Storrs, Conn. against the University of Connecticut the next day. Trainer performed at all three. 

“They’re crazy basketball teams to watch, so I’m really grateful I got that travel experience,” she said.

Looking ahead, Trainer sees opportunities for the team to become involved in other varsity sports. 

“Basketball is our one gig. We did go to a couple soccer games this year just because they were insane, so I think that might start becoming a thing,” she said.

The cheerleaders perform next this Thursday, March 6 at 5 p.m. at Patrick Gym for the America East women’s quarterfinal against the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.