“All aboard the Go-Hawk train! Woo! Woo!”
That’s the easy part of the cheer.
Then comes the tougher one:
“G-G-G-G-G-G-O-O-O-O-O-O-H-H-H-H-H-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-W-W-W-W-W-W-K-K-K-K-K-K-Go Hawks.
What’s hard about that part of the chant is that you have to do it fast, accurately, and in rhythm, too.
Practice does make perfect and it is that perfection that the spectators hear and see when the Waverly-Shell Rock High School varsity basketball cheerleaders do their chants and stunts.
For five of the 13 members of the squad this past year, the chant was a tad bit harder to learn as they had to recite it in a language other than their mother tongue.
They come from four European countries and are exchange students from Italy, Russia, Serbia and Spain.
This is not the first time that international students have been on W-SR cheer teams, but it is the first time that such a significant number of members are international students.
The blended team’s captains are seniors Bella Feldhake and Addie Harn, and the exchange student captain is Milena Mihajlovic, of Serbia.
Over the course of the school year, the students had developed a special bond of sisterhood, which is rare and telling.
It came through during an interview with Waverly Newspapers in the stories they told; in the good laughs they shared and in the way they sometimes finished each other’s sentences like members of the same family often do.
As they are getting ready to wrap up a year full of joyful happenings and personal growth, the international cheerleaders reflected on their experiences at W-SR along with their American teammates while sitting on the gym floor in between classes. Missing from the group that day was Giada Rosso, from Italy.
Recalling the challenge of learning the cheers, especially one called, “The Go-Hawk train,” Bea Tacoronte Pardo de Donlebun, of Spain, explained it like this:
“So, it’s really fast, and it’s like two or three times, so it’s really, like, hard to concentrate and, imagine the word in your head and say the letters in English,” she said. “For me, at least, it’s really hard. I’m sure it’s also hard for the native speakers also. They’re the ones that take over, and I let them be super commanding on those ones.”
A group laugh followed that explanation, as each of the exchange students recalled her own struggles with memorizing the cheer, and then being able to deliver it seamlessly in English, which upped the ante of the challenge further.
But it wasn’t just the cheer and the regiment of practices that the international students had to master during their time at W-SR.
They had to adapt to a whole new culture of schooling, living away from their families and making new, viable friendships in a new country, among many other challenges.
Coach Abby Ryan, who is in her first year of working with the team, has great appreciation for the international students and, like the rest of the team, she did what she could to make them feel midwestern hospitality in its earnest.
“These girls also had to challenge themselves a lot,” she said admiringly.
The presence of the international students on the home team has been enriching for all.
The girls have shared memorable experiences of cheering and connecting; the international students learned a lot about American culture by immersing themselves in the team activities and the American students, in turn, have learned a bit about the countries their teammates came from, mostly from conversations and jokes.
The international cheerleaders also drew comparisons between the environment and the culture of the high school experiences between Waverly and their hometowns.
In essence, it boiled down to this: In their home countries, the high school environment is much more rigorous, the homework is heftier and school is a place just for learning, not for extra curricular activities.
What they enjoyed together
As their journey is about to come to an end in May, the exchange students are grateful they got a chance to experience high school life in the United States.
The bond between the teammates is strong and runs in both directions. The international students learned about America first hand and the American students gained a special appreciation of the privileges and the plentiness they enjoy here, which, they said, they sometimes take for granted.
Even though they came from the same country, and even the same county, the American students also have different experiences with cheerleading.
Kylie Karsjens, for instance, could relate to the international students well because of the cultural shock of attending a public school, which vastly differed from the home schooling environment she had been used to for years.
“I’m like looking at them, remembering what it was like to be in their shoes, where it’s all so new,” she said.
Milena, who hails from Bor, a city of about 41,000 residents in eastern Serbia, said being a member of the W-SR cheerleading squad is a new experience for her.
“This is my first ever time doing anything like this,” she said. “I’ve done dance and ballet, but I’ve never done cheer.”
In Serbia, there is only professional cheerleading but to get a tryout, aspiring cheerleaders have to be high school graduates, according to the Serbian Cheer Federation.
Milena said that for her, cheerleading was a lot more difficult to learn than ballet and dance.
Fellow cheerleader Valentina Guerranti, from Siena, a city of 53,772 residents in the central Tuscany region of Italy, said her expectations of what her experience in America would look like were largely shaped by Hollywood’s definition of culture.
“When you’re an exchange student coming to the United States, we expect to live the American movie life,” she said. “You know, like, football games, basketball games, homecoming, prom, and of course, cheerleading, because we don’t have that.”
She said she enjoyed every minute of being a part of a cheer squad.
“It was such a good opportunity to have this experience because I know other exchange students, and they’re in the United States, and they don’t have the opportunity to do cheerleading, because they have tryouts,” she said. “I think I’m very lucky also to have met these girls, because they’re special, and they’re very like, open-minded. They embraced us in a beautiful way.”
Milana Kartavtseva, an exchange student from Belgorod, a city of 339,978 inhabitants, in Russia, said she didn’t know what to expect when she arrived in Waverly.
“It was an American dream for me to come to America and cheer because you have to cheer if you come to America,” she said. “If you didn’t do it, why did you come?”
She said that her understanding of American high school life came from various movies such as Mean Girls, a 2004 comedy starring Lindsay Lohan and Tina Fey.
Milana’s experience lived up to her expectations.
“I did football and basketball cheer and I can say that it was the best experience of my life,” she said.
Like all of her international teammates, Milana shares pictures and videos of her performances with her parents back home so they see what she is doing.
Milana and fellow cheerleader, Rylee Tempel, whose uncanny resemblance made their coach dub them the “twins,” jokingly told their friends at school that they are related.
“We gaslit almost the entire school into believing that we’re cousins because I have a Lithuanian great-grandma,” Rylee said.
She added that having the exchange students on the team made her go out of her comfort zone.
“I did football cheer last year and this year and then basketball cheer this year and I’d say that I’ve definitely gotten out of my bubble a lot more since last year,” she said. “I’ve been way more social than I would have been, and like made friends with people that I wouldn’t make friends with usually, and I’ve definitely made some lifetime friendships and relationships because of cheer and it’s just been an amazing experience.”
What the international students brought to the team in terms of perspective
The American students, too, learned about what their peers in other countries do and how they handle life. And some of these stories and friendships will have a lasting impact as they plan to stay in touch with their European counterparts afterwards.
But perhaps the most eye-opening revelation of all is how different school is around the world.
Addie, one of the American captains, said that the presence of the exchange students on the team helped her become a more engaged and confident senior captain for the team.
“I was the only upperclassman for basketball cheer this year, so this year I don’t know what I was expecting,” she said. “To be around all of the foreign exchange students just gave me a better understanding on a lot of things. They brought me so much joy. Seeing them get excited brought me joy and I enjoy being around these girls so much. I’m so happy to have gotten this group for my last year of high school.”
To build the team, Coach Ryan relied a lot on her seniors when football season began and she said that she is “blessed to have been the coach for such amazing young ladies.”
The memories will keep the experiences alive when they are no longer together as a team, they all agree.
What the exchange students will miss about Waverly
While for now they push away the thought of having to separate at the end of the academic year, the cheerleaders are realistic that this is going to happen, so they find a modicum of comfort in preparing how they are going to cope with the inevitability of change.
When they return to their home countries, the international students will have a lot to tell their old friends and families.
They said there will also be so much they would miss – the frequent trips to Starbucks, bowling outings, pizza parties, hanging out with each other and having fun.
But what will be truly missed on both sides of the Atlantic is the sisterhood they created.
That void will be equally felt by those who leave and those who stay behind.
Facetime and Snapchat may help mitigate the void that will be created with the departure of the exchange students, but the girls are making plans to stay connected and keep being friends long after they return home from this exciting almost year-long adventure.
Some have already planned trips for this summer to visit each other in their home countries. They will all miss seeing each other on a regular basis and the fun times that they got to have.
“I will miss doing all those different things throughout the day because in my case, I have one more year of high school when I get back,” said Bea, the student from Spain. “Instead of finishing high school, having cheer practice and hanging out with my friends, doing whatever I want and not having school as a top priority. That’s going to change a lot and I’m going to miss having all that social life and having so much fun.”
Added Milena:
“One thing I’m going to miss for sure is going to be cheering. Cheer has changed my whole outlook on a lot of things like confidence and everything. I’m also going to miss just the independence of being able to do whatever I want kind of.
“I’m going to miss my friends obviously. I’ve created, as I said, so many bonds that I hope really carry on and into the future.”
Valentina said what she will miss the most are the friendships she will leave behind.
“I never knew that I was gonna come to Waverly, Iowa, and meet some of my best friends and make this whole cheer team where everybody feels super close, and it just sucks that we’re leaving,” she said. “But it also means so much that we had this time together.”
“I will miss challenging myself everyday,” she continued, “because it’s like you know in your country, you’re in your comfort zone and your people, but here I like challenging myself and seeing what I’m able to do and I’ll miss cookie dough ice cream.”
Milana said she would miss her American “twin” and her family, who have embraced her wholeheartedly.
“I think the one thing that I actually will miss is not a thing, it’ll be Rylee,” she said.
