Naselle school spirit is epitomized in the cheer squad leadership of Beonna Vivlemore.

NASELLE — To hear Beonna Vivlemore talk with her natural exuberance, one thing becomes clear.

Cheerleading is both art and science.

Vivlemore, a junior, is co-captain of this winter’s Naselle squad, having cheered since she was a freshman.

Performing along the sidelines of a basketball court, facing fans, often means captains must have eyes in the back of their head.

“You turn slightly, so you know if we switch from defense to offense, you change the cheer,” she explained. “You see the game through your peripherals. It’s a skill in itself, but it is something you learn.”

Vivlemore and co-captain Zanith Wulf, a senior, are excited about the high school boys and girls basketball seasons underway.

“I feel like it really helps our school so much, because people are cheering as a group,” said Vivlemore, as she prepared for a recent boys basketball contest. “It brings up morale and brings our school together.”

The captains’ roles include giving the squad members a pep talk before each game, then calling cheers and chants as their fellow student-athletes demonstrate their skills behind them.

Safety

At half time, they perform human pyramid-building stunts, carefully choreographed by coaches Herlet Padilla and Blair Gray, always with an eye on safety.

Squad members attended a pre-season camp in Seattle to learn techniques and routines from leaders of the National Cheerleaders Association.

During stunts, they are aware all eyes are on them.

“In cheer, you only have one chance,” said Kylee Tarabochia, a junior, serving on the cheer squad for the first time. “If you fall short, it’s the thing that people remember after the game.”

The season is a change of pace for Tarabochia and her sister, Brynn, a freshman. They contributed greatly to the volleyball team’s successful run to the 1B state championships last fall and anticipate being active with the same coach, Rebekah Wirkkala, when softball starts this spring.

“When you can’t do the stunt, you get super stressed,” said Brynn Tarabochia.

“I wanted to do something different, so I picked cheer. I thought it was going to be really easy, but it’s hard — although you don’t have to run a lot!”

During volleyball, they were teammates with Emma Colombo, another junior, who appreciates the physical workout of cheerleading. “I thought it was a good way to keep in shape between volleyball and track,” she said.

For the latter, she’s a serious individual contender. Last May, she came home from the WIAA state championships at Cheney with a seventh-place medal for javelin. And five of the six girls ahead of her on the 1B podium have graduated.

Cheer maintains her fitness and she’s challenged to learn the dance elements.

“I thought I would not be able to memorize the cheers, and then there’s the dancing. I’ve never danced. It’s ‘5-6-7-8!’ — a different move for every one,” she laughed.

“I thought at first I wasn’t going to like it, but it’s a really good squad. In stunting, you have to work together. If you lose eye contact, you could drop the girl. You have to make sure your timing is right — it’s definitely not an easy sport.”

Energy

Coaches Padilla and Gray have welcomed the opportunity to blend their new energy with returning squad members, many of whom shouted themselves hoarse supporting both Naselle teams at the state basketball tournament in Spokane last year.

“We do have first-time cheerleaders on the squad, getting comfortable with stunting, and seeing how much energy it takes,” said Padilla, whose enthusiastic daughter Mia Watson has two years of cheer experience. So, too, do freshmen Ella Oldham and Kylee Rojas. Eighth-grader Maggie Creech-Ware is making her debut.

Padilla became involved about three years ago. “When we started it, we found it was something important for the school to have,” she said.

Gray remembers the times she had cheering for Naselle in seasons leading up to her 1999 graduation. “We enjoy it,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

In sync

As the game progresses behind the squad on a recent Saturday night, versatile Naselle senior Ethan Lindstrom eludes his defender and shoots a basket. Fans on both sides of the gym erupt.

Sometimes it only takes a shot on basket or a shake of upraised blue-and-gold pom-poms to raise the decibel level in the Naselle gym. At this point, moms, dads, grandparents and siblings are roaring “Comet power!” — a chant that works well in all seasons’ sports.

At the center of the cheer line, Vivlemore tilts her head to realize the switch to defense then yells left and right to change the cadence. Soon voices around her are in sync.

“Blue, gold, white! Fight! Fight! Fight!”

A foul gives the visitors a free throw. Cheerleaders and fans fall silent, observing the proprieties, but the squad is in full cheer once Naselle has the ball back.

Demonstrating sportsmanship has always been a core value of cheerleaders; at halftime during a pre-Christmas game, squad members handed out candy canes to visiting fans from upriver rivals Wahkiakum.

Supported

At NHS, Vivlemore takes college classes and is a former band member. She savors her involvement in cheer. Her leading contribution is somewhat remarkable because she battles asthma, a breathing condition that can preclude vigorous sports.

She perseveres, inspired by the seriousness with which she approaches her job of co-captain.

And she knows she has a support system right alongside her.

“If you connect with your teammates, that’s how — we are so uplifting with each other,” she said.

‘It brings up morale and brings our school together.’

— Beonna Vivlemore

Naselle cheerleader