Leaping onto campus in 1947, Prep’s female cheerleaders have recently become a topic of mystery. Ending in 2010, the cheer team is a forgotten part of Prep’s history, despite its fascinating legacy that historically promoted inclusion before Prep’s coed transition.
Initially, the cheer team, referred to as “Yell” at the time, faced significant understaffing due to its recent creation. Consisting of just six individuals – three boys and three girls – the Yell team received little recognition from Echo (the Prep yearbook) in its inaugural year. Beneath a grainy black and white portrait of the team, their full names remain undisclosed, leaving their identity unknown.
In 1948, substantial changes transformed the Yell team, rebranding themselves to “cheer” and now consisting of two teams: cheerleaders and cheerleaderettes. The purpose of the exclusively female “cheerleaderette” team remains unclear, as Prep still wasn’t accepting female applicants. Nevertheless, the team doubled its members from the previous year and their last names were finally displayed in the yearbook.
For several decades, cheer continued to strengthen the school spirit and spread panther pride. In the 1970s, Prep underwent a major change, going coed after 80 years of being an exclusively male school. With an influx of new students, interest in the cheer team rose. The increase in staff prompted a shift from separate male and female teams to a single cheer team, beginning a new era of inclusivity.
The spirit of the cheer team reigned strong for the next 30 years, but at the turn of the century, spirit started to dwindle. With members leaving the program each year, Prep’s administration no longer saw a desire for the cheer team to continue, causing it to be cut from Prep’s programs in 2010. Despite the long and inclusive history of cheer at Prep, the legacy has mostly been forgotten. Although no longer existing, the student body at Prep carries the positive and spirited message of the cheer team every day, prompting many to ask, when will it return?
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