After 10 years without a cheerleading team, Granada-Huntley-East Chain is ready to take school spirit to the next level.

The idea to form a cheerleading team came about when a couple of students approached athletic director Erin Roiger, asking if the school could bring back cheerleading.

“So she put a sign up and I believe she said, ‘If we have at least four girls, then we would make a squad,'” said cheerleading adviser Emily Counter.

Soon, nine girls had signed up.

So far, the new cheerleading team has performed at all the girls and boys basketball games in Granada, as well as a few in Truman and Northrop.

“When we did our schedule we just kind of picked a few (games) and were just going to see how everything went, but it’s been going really well,” said Counter. “So we’ll probably go into the end of February.”

In order to get younger students excited about cheering, GHEC held a Little Jags Cheer Clinic from Jan. 15-18. Counter said her goal for the clinic was to get about 20 elementary school students to sign up. In the end, about 40 from GHEC and Truman participated.

“It was a really nice turnout,” Counter said.

For the clinic, the GHEC cheerleaders led the elementary students in different stations, sang songs, did fun activities, and taught them cheers and a dance routine. The students received a T-shirt and pom poms to take home.

On Jan. 19, the students in the cheer clinic performed at halftime at the GHEC boy’s varsity game in Granada.

Superintendent Mandy Fletcher said she was blown away by the number of students who signed up for the cheer clinic, and the overwhelming support from the community.

“Forty kids, it’s just incredible,” she said.

Counter said the cheerleading team will continue into next year, with the possibility of forming a team to perform at the fall football games.

“When I’ve been walking around at the games, [the crowd is] very pleased and they’re happy to have the cheerleaders back, and I know they enjoy during the timeout the cheerleaders can come out and do a cheer and keep the crowd involved,” Counter said.