With this person, age does not matter. Freshman Maddy Reeve is only one of two ninth graders to make the varsity cheer team at Holy Trinity. Even though she is on the younger side, that did not discourage her from trying to make the team. She credits her success to her sister for encouraging her to try gymnastics, which led her to cheer, and to her mom for all her support.

When Reeve first started cheerleading she relied on her gymnastics skills to help her learn cheer moves and she had been tumbling for almost 10 years. “Without gymnastics, I would not know how to tumble, and in gymnastics, you also have to be very sharp with most of your movements which was something that helped me a lot,” she recalled. 

After gymnastics, Reeve still wanted to do something that could incorporate her gymnastic skills. This is when she first started to show interest in the sport in seventh grade and officially began to cheer in eighth grade. She got into the sport because she was no longer having fun in her previous sport. But, she also loved her friends, and one in particular, sophomore Hannah Harrington, who she used to do gymnastics with, was doing cheer, so she decided to do it because it was different and however, it was still similar enough to it that she thought she could still be good at it. 

What Reeve has loved about cheerleading is the people. She thinks everyone on the team is super nice and supportive. She also loves to cheer at away games because she finds the away game atmosphere to be very different and allows for a lot more freedom compared to home games.

Reeve is one of the youngest members of Holy Trinity varsity cheer. “Everyone is super nice, but it helps that I have another girl that is my age on the team,” she said. She feels that without her it would be a little bit difficult to connect with some of the other girls because of the age gap. But, no one really notices the different ages on the team. However, she added that it is sometimes hard to try and follow in their footsteps. But, while that may be hard there are still people on the team she looks up to.

On the team, Reeve looks up to many people like Roxie Edmondson, Jersie Ramos, and Sage LaGala. She looks up to Edmondson because she is very outgoing and very good at what she does. Then she looks up to Ramos because of her great skill as a dancer. Reeve also relates to her because they are close in age. Lastly, she also looks up to LaGala because she is such a great leader. With all these great role models on the team, Reeve has set a personal goal for herself. She wants to become a better dancer like the other cheerleaders.  She recounts that during her gymnastics training, they did not teach any type of dance moves.

“As much as I like football season, basketball season is more fun because you are closer to your teammates and can talk to whoever,” Reeve said.