by George Craft, Staff Reporter

So far this fall, Deerfield Academy's Cheerleaders have been loud and rowdy on every sideline, cheering each DA athlete to victory. This group of respected upperclassmen is here to lead, enhance, and embody school spirit. Leaders Katie "I play all day" Fay '00 and Shauvi "the Dawg" Rogers '00 and returning varsity cheerleader the DA Train Justin Kelley '00 are all excited and anxious for the big sports events of the year to get underway. This year, they have plans to be a greater force in the community. "This was our first year with actual tryouts, and we hope that this group can keep everyone positive and excited throughout the year," Fay said.

The tryouts, in fact, were intense and competitive: in the end only those who truly "bleed green" were honored with cheerleadering letter sweaters. The newly selected cheerleaders are Master Andrew Armstrong '00, Down Town Maggie Brown '00, Lindsey Burnett '01 a.k.a. The Magic Maker, Curtis "Walk the Wok" Chin '01, Mike "I'm completely insane" Gilbane '00, Chivon "I smell victory" Pacheco '00, Chico "Gyabage" Sanchez '00, Big Nasty Nancy Schmicker '01, and Kady "Tree" Tremaine '00, along with newly selected advisors Mr. "hardcore" Harcourt and Ms. "I love everybody" Loftus. "This is a great group of people who are really excited about Deerfield.

They will definitely keep the community loud and proud to be green," said Christian O'Mara '01. The new cheerleaders express an unprecedented enthusiasm towards the challenge ahead. "I was surprised and honored to be a cheerleader this year. It's a great group of people," said Schmicker. "We're fun, we're loud, and we can't wait to get the entire school cheering."

The new leaders also look forward to the leadership of Rogers and Fay, by far the most spirited students in the school. Magic Maker Burnett said, "I am so psyched to be working with Katie and Shauvi. They are great people, good leaders in the community, and want to see everyone here have as much school spirit as they do."

Besides the cheerleaders' difficult task of providing inspiration to players on the field and making fans cheer louder to give teams an extra boost, a new goal for this year's cheerleaders is to be more active during school meeting. With the aid of Mr. Harcourt and Ms. Loftus, they have already taught the entire school some more of Deerfield's old and traditional cheers, as well as reinforced those we hear every day. "We want to teach them some of the old cheers. The student body just doesn't know all of them," said Mr. Harcourt. "The spirit is already there, inside the student body. The cheerleaders' job is just to bring it out of them?' The Dawg commented on this, saying, "I know the spirit is there. It's hard not to love DA. We just need to be loud and make everyone else be loud and proud." When asked about his favorite cheer, his answer was, of course, "The Dawg cheer, what else?" He concludes by saying, "We do it for the kids!"

On Choate Day, when almost every Deerfield team goes head to head with their biggest rival, the cheerleaders will be giving out face paint along with green D tattoos. They will also sell a much a anticipated dean-approved Choate Day shirt, As for the pep rally and skits (performed annually at school meeting before Choate Day), none of the ideas was revealed except that it should be funny and very "pro-Deerfield."

What it all comes down to is that Deerfield has unbeatable school spirit, and these cheerleaders will lead everyone throughout the year, but it is up to the rest of the student body to respond by being forever loud and green. New cheerlead elect Andrew Armstrong summed it all up saying, "Choate day is gonna be awesome. I'm so excited. This place better be crazy because I sure will be."