Standing on the football field, Raghavi Garre, junior, is filled with fear and nerves for her first ever color guard performance. Just minutes before she stepped into her position, her captain, Anna Jones came to her to talk her down.

“After the performance I was so happy and hugged a lot of people, and I was just thankful that my first performance went well,” Garre said.

Athletes lean on each other for encouragement because when playing a sport, teammates will always be there to support each other. Whether it be on the field, during practice, or cheering on from the sidelines, there is someone to provide encouragement.

Garre said the color guard connects during practice and outside of school.

“We’ve done parties together, like a Halloween party where we carved pumpkins,” Garre said. “We do ‘taps’ where we clink together our flag poles as an almost good luck charm that we’re going to do good in our performance.”

During her time on guard, Garre said there are things she had to learn on her own. Now, she is able to help newer members when she sees them struggling.

“I really loved being able to help one of our rookies, Sanni,” Garre said. “She’s darker-skin toned like me and teaching her how to do makeup that adapts to her skin tone and being able to make sure that she doesn’t go through that awkward makeup phase like I had gone through was really nice.” 

During the season, senior Sophie Hobbs, a varsity cheer captain,  said the captains try to connect with their younger teammates and lift each other up. The cheer team participates in a tradition called, “Big Sis-Lil Sis” where the juniors and seniors are paired with underclassmen by their coaches to guide them.

“We pick three girls and all write them a note about what they do well and what they need to remember and things to encourage them and keep them motivated,” Hobbs said.

Hobbs said she has to communicate with her other captains to ensure everyone is feeling supported in ways that work for them.

Carter Russell, sophomore, is on the varsity cross country team and said there are many ways the team comes together when focused on their own goals.

“Because we’re all kinda suffering together, running together, it increases everybody’s friendship automatically because we end up running for a long time each day, especially at the varsity level,” Russell said.

He said many runners find a partner during practice to keep company and challenge each other. 

“Having the team mentality and having a teammate to run next to you especially if you’re around the same pace can be really helpful with the mental aspect of the game,” Russel said.

To Russell, cross country is a supportive environment because of team bonding.

”If someone PR’s [personal record], we all cheer for them, and everybody is rallied around together,” Russel said, “We just won our meet previously and we were all cheering together and happy because it’s a team victory even though we were all running individually,” Russell said.

Michael Ebert, girls track and boys cross country coach, constantly encourages his team to break out of their comfort zone in practice.

“We have about 80 to 90 boys and girls on the team and we warm up together and practice together so trying to get them to know each other outside their training group or friend group is something we try to encourage,” Ebert said.

Ebert said he values team bonding and its ability to bring his team closer, especially through activities like their annual Halloween run to end off the JV season. 

“I think it’s really important in any sport and I think every sport has their own version of games or activities, whatever  they find helpful,” Ebert said. “We have a little fun at the end of the season to remind them to keep celebrating each other.”