Everyone has seen the recent change in the Frederick Cheer team. Whether it has been at football games, volleyball games, or homecoming events, everyone knows that the team has gone co-ed. However, while many people know about this new step for the program, many are unaware that there is more to the team than meets the eye.
Beginning in the spring of 2024, Frederick High Cheer started recruiting male athletes. From there, the team started to transition into co-ed and now they are officially competing in the 5A co-ed category for the 24-25 school year.
In an interview with the team’s new head coach, Coach Emily, she talked about how being co-ed can bring a new dynamic to the team and how being co-ed can deepen the culture of the team as a whole. She noted how she likes co-ed teams “because they bring a different dynamic and mentality.
They bring these mindsets from their programs like football and wrestling and they bring it into cheer… I think it opens up their [female cheerleaders’] minds in a different way that they would have never thought of things.”
There are many female athletes on the team that have never cheered with male athletes, but a few have, such as Peyton Bruggerman. Peyton has been cheering for nine years and grew up in an All Star gym that had many male cheerleaders.
When asked what it was like transitioning into co-ed, Peyton explained that she thinks “it’s been amazing, it brings a completely different dynamic to the team and I think it has added a lot of difficulty to our skill sets.”
While the transition to co-ed is new for many of the female cheerleaders, it is also a new experience for many of the incoming male cheerleaders.
Carter Krayna, a sophomore at Frederick, joined cheer with a gymnastics background. Now a backspot in the stunt groups, Carter explained how “some things were pretty easy to transition to, such as the tumbling, other things just took a little bit longer to get used to, such as the stunts.”
At the Frederick events that the FHS Cheer team performs at, there are two male athletes that are contributing to the routines and stunts: Carter Krayna and Troy Meisinger. But what many people are unaware of is that there are more male athletes on the team.
The FHS cheer team actually has four male athletes, but since two of them compete in football simultaneously, they won’t perform until winter.
One of them is Sam Chambers. Sam is a senior on Frederick’s Varsity football team who simultaneously competes on the FHS Cheer team. To make cheerleading still accessible for the football athletes, the practices are slightly separated into two sections.
Coach Emily explained how for the first hour of practice, when the male cheerleaders are still at football, the time is more dedicated to game day material and then the last half of practice is more reserved for competition practice because all of the athletes are present.
These practices become even more vital as cheer competition approaches. As previously mentioned, the team is now competing in the 5A co-ed category. The team starts competing in October, but their big competition is State in early December.
In previous years, the team has gone on to compete at Nationals in California. When asked about the goals for this year, Coach Emily stated, “we’re hoping to go [to Nationals], [but] my main focus is state, ‘cause why compete nationally if you can’t do well at state?”
In order for the team to make it to Nationals they need to receive a bid from an earlier competition. To receive a bid they have to place high enough at a competition for the judges to say that they are at a level where they can compete nationally.
The FHS Cheer team is transitioning into new territory. They are opening up the sport for male and female cheerleaders at Frederick alike. But they are tackling this challenge head on.
