GOOD HOPE, Ala. — Good Hope cheerleader Maycie Nolen is preparing for her second year on the Raiders varsity cheer team, and she’s had a blast learning as much as she can from all her teammates and coaches.
“I have absolutely loved being on the team. I’ve made so many friends that I wouldn’t have if I wasn’t a cheerleader. I love being involved in my school,” Nolen said. “I’ve learned how to solve problems better, communicate, and work well with others. It’s been so amazing getting to cheer alongside some great girls. I’ve loved every bit of it so far. I’ve never seen another group of people have each other’s backs like we do.”
Maycie got to cheer alongside senior Ashlin Hamm and took away an important thing from her; she can’t wait to cheer alongside some great seniors this upcoming season.
“Ashlin Hamm did an amazing job of stepping up, especially being the only senior on the cheer team. She was an amazing cheerleader. She had great crowd engagement. I learned a lot from her since I was a freshman, but one thing was how to get the student section engaged,” Nolen said. ” Mahayla Dillard, Natalie Scott, Kailey White, Lexi Doss, and Jenna Crumpton have been great role models already and I’m so excited for this upcoming year with them. They’ve taught me some hard stunts, how to paint signs, and most importantly, how to be a leader for the younger girls.”
Maycie took away so much from some great coaches and has seen her performance drastically improve from last year until now.
“Our coaches are fantastic and so much fun to work with. They taught us how to be role models for our school and our teammates and to work hard toward our goals, but to have fun too,” she said. “My performance has grown drastically since last year, especially my stunting skills. I’m so thankful to have gotten help from my coaches and teammates to get to where I am now.”
Good Hope went to state last year, and Maycie had a blast competing there. She talked about what she worked on in the offseason and what she will continue to work to get ready for the upcoming year.
“It was a lot of fun. Competitions are my favorite part of cheer. I was so proud of my team for getting second place in traditional out of the whole state. I think we learned not to get in our heads and to just focus on giving it all we got,” she said. “I’ve worked on getting stronger for my stunts and tumbling. I will continue working on my strength until I can do them with ease.”
Maycie talked about the goals for this upcoming year, what will make this cheer squad special to watch, the cheerleaders that she looks up to, and the best advice that she was ever given.
“My goal for myself is to a high-to-high by the end of this season and our team goal is to win state,” she said. “I feel like our obvious love for what we do is always prominent when we’re competing and the crowd can always tell when a team isn’t loving what they’re doing, so I think they’ll see our passion and get excited to watch. Mahayla Dillard, Natalie Scott, and Lexi Doss really stuck out to me personally. I like how they can correct and help us in a nice, encouraging way. The best advice that someone ever gave me was to keep going, no matter how hard things get, because the best is yet to come.”
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