The cheer squad painted pumpkins together under the pavilion during their Friday practice in order to strengthen the bonds between the teammates.

“When we got to practice, the coaches [Hannah Smith and Kaitlyn Hoskins] handed out little pumpkins for us to paint with each other,” Riley Ransom (10) said. “We then like went and sat at different tables and painted our pumpkins with acrylic paint.”

The girls painted a variety of things on their pumpkins.

“I painted a face on my pumpkin,” Audrey Dohmen (10) said. “Riley [Ransom] painted flowers on hers and Emma [Lombroia (9) , Jadyn [Rutherford (9)] and Hannah [Herndon (9)] wrote some like TikTok quote on theirs.”

In order to promote positivity within the team, coach Smith and coach Hoskins had the team write positive things about each other.

“This girl name Courtnee [Reidel (12)] said I am so amazing at tumbling and flexibility,” Ransom said. “Audrey Dohmen wrote on my paper that I am really funny.”

Dohmen said the activity made an impact.

“I feel like really good about the bonding experience,” she said. “It brought us closer together as a team.”

By Hunter Delaney