St. Joseph School

St. Joseph's high school cheerleaders took part in a three-day camp this week led by their new coaches, Audrey Elsinger and Kim Nutt. Coach Elsinger, who taught English here last year, will coach in a volunteer capacity since she's now a stay-at-home mom raising her and her husband Jeremy's three-month old son, Matthias. Coach Nutt, who serves as our school nurse, will also work with the junior high and varsity cheerleading squads. Coach Elsinger, a 2018 SJS graduate, was a cheerleader here and coached pee wee cheerleaders in the past. A 2000 graduate of Bigelow High School, Coach Nutt was a cheerleader there from the 7th through 12th grades.
" We're super-excited," both coaches said. "We wanted to get the cheerleaders back into the bulldog spirit, review cheers and chants, and learn a couple of band dances. They were also excited and showed lots of energy." About 30 cheerleaders took part in the camp.
This year's squads will be focused on home games. "We'll be at home games, pep rallies and homecoming," Coach Elsinger said. "We'll be trying to bring some energy back into the high school itself but home is where our focus will be." Speaking of homecoming, a fresh approach will be taken with the basketball games normally associated with it. Homecoming games have usually been set deeper into the Fall with a familiar opponent. This time, they'll kick off the season with the traditional purple and gold intrasquad games as a unifying attraction for both current students and alumni. The first pep rally will also lead up to those games.
"We want our cheerleaders to have fun and enjoy it," Coach Nutt said. "We also want them to share the love of Jesus on the court and in our school, " Coach Elsinger added. From their own observations and what veteran cheerleaders have told them, these coaches know they'll need to find ways to improve crowd participation without getting on the "rowdy side." They want the crowd to interact with the cheerleaders while displaying good sportsmanship at the same time. One of the things the coaches think will help bring the energy of game day to the high school are game day jerseys that sports team members will be allowed to wear on those occasions. "That would let everyone else know there was a game that day, " Coach Nutt said. "It would keep the energy and spirit up from the beginning of school until the end of a game."
When asked if we'd ever see the regular return of a bulldog mascot at games and pep rallies, the coaches replied in unison "When we have a volunteer!" They both agreed that could get the crowd more involved. "It would have to be a student with high energy who'd be willing to take the sweat," (inside the suit) Coach Elsinger said.