Meet Your Neighbor: LA School for the Deaf Cheer Team
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - To be a championship cheer team you need spirit, passion, and rhythm. For the champion War Eagles at the Louisiana School for the Deaf, they have to feel it.
”We’re able to feel the beat and rhythm of loud music. We do have speakers that are cranked up to the highest level possible. We have drums we’re able to feel the vibration of. So, all of those things allow us to coordinate our routines,” explains LSD head cheer coach Meleah Miller.
If you’ve never had the opportunity to see the deaf cheer team in action, they are a force all their own. The team uses a bass drum and extremely loud music to feel the timing and rhythm of their dance routines and cheers. They also incorporate sign language into their cheers, encouraging the crowd to cheer with them. Once they learn a routine, they run it over and over until it’s championship-worthy.
It’s not an easy task. LSD is a small school and their resources are limited. That means the cheer team must wait until other teams are done practicing before they can use the school facilities. This year, they faced even more challenges than usual.
The team members say it’s not the challenges of coming from a small school or being deaf or even the championship win that make them special. It’s the bond they share.
”The team is so special because each of the girls has their style of dance, they have their own opinions and different ways of moving their bodies,” said Boxie.
By Elizabeth Vowell
Published: Mar. 8, 2024 at 6:06 PM CST