ABOVE: The Fairmont High School cheer team poses after a football game at Mahoney Field this season. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Arenes

FAIRMONT – The Fairmont Junior and High School cheerleading team is off to a strong start so far in 2025. Under the watch of head coach Elizabeth Arenes, who has entered her sixth season in this position, the team has looked sharp on Friday’s as they perform in front of the many Fairmont football fans at Mahoney Field.

This year’s roster is compiled of 22 individuals on both rosters, ranging from seventh to twelfth grade and everything in between. While this year’s team is mainly composed of a heavy junior class, including captains Elizabeth Engeman-Voss and Jessah Herman, Arenes has seen each season fluctuate depending on the grade.

“Every year seems to be different,” Arenes said. “Last year I had no seniors, I think it was my first time having no seniors, it was a lot younger. This year, our biggest year is juniors, we have a couple of seniors. Our younger classmen, our seventh and eighth graders, usually it’s smaller numbers.”

Practice starts as soon as all other fall sports kick off their season, with this year falling on Aug. 11. The team will immediately be tested, practicing twice a day, in the morning and afternoon, until school starts later that month.

Individuals will practice both cheers, chants, and stunts throughout these early days, with the goal being to memorize as many routines as possible as the season progresses.

“When we first start we do a couple of cheers at a time, because they have a lot of cheers they have to memorize,” Arenes said. “We gradually add them on, a lot of it depends on our younger/newer girls and how quickly they are learning them, so that way we can all stick together.”

Once the football season starts, however, things amp up for Arenes and her team. Junior varsity will cheer at all of the junior varsity home games while the varsity team will travel to both home and away contests to help give their support.

Wherever they are placed, the main goal of the team is to be the main lifeline for moral support for the Fairmont fans. From pulling off a complex stunt routine to simply keeping the crowd engaged, the team is doing its very best to keep individuals up-beat no matter what the scoreboard says.

“I think it kind of brings up the morale of the game with the school spirit,” Arenes said. “They kind of get the crowd going. I never realized it before, because my focus is always on the girls, but I’ve had a couple of games recently where I’ve actually paid attention to see if the crowd is getting involved, and they really do.”

Another wrinkle in the cheer team for the past two seasons has been the implementation of attending Fairmont cross country team. Starting last year, head coach Andrew Moeller reached out to Arenes and her staff for a potential pairing at their home events.

Now, fans can expect to see Fairmont cheer attending both the Early Bird and I-90 Invite to help support another realm of the sports world.

“I think they [Moeller] saw it somewhere else and you know, the team actually enjoys it,” Arenes said. “They lined up at the finish line to cheer them on as they were coming in. They were cheering on the other teams as well. Moral support for everyone.”

Fans can look out for the Fairmont cheer team this Friday during the Cardinals homecoming football game against Belle Plaine. Kickoff for that contest is set to begin at 7 p.m. at Mahoney Field.