By Spencer Drahos-
Karissa Benter, a senior at Mount Vernon High School, expressed her love for cheering by going out for it this year. She said “I have always loved cheering, but with volleyball, I have not been able to do it.” Karissa was unhappy with the choices she had made her first three years of high school with choosing volleyball over cheerleading. When she could not decide whether to do volleyball over cheerleading, she asked close friend, Jamie Wolf, who told her “I know you have always played volleyball, but if you really want to cheer you should.” With this advice from one of her best friends she considered it for a long time, then decided to go out for cheerleading.

Karissa does not only love cheering, but she enjoys spending time with her friends that are on the team, and really likes the coaches. The best difference between volleyball and cheerleading is the practices, “usually most people do not enjoy going to practice, but the coaches for cheerleading make it extremely fun,” said Karissa. She also enjoys having such close friends on the team such as Alex Bell and Darrow Center “they help me catch onto new routines quicker” stated Karissa. This showing that having friends to help can make anything easier.

“Cheering is not only something Karissa enjoys doing, but it puts her in a great mood whether she knows it or not” said Alex Bell. Alex has been good friends with Karissa for a couple years and has seen Karissa on her good and bad days and “during cheerleading there seems to be no bad days or at least way less of them” she said jokingly.

When asked what Karissa’s biggest regret in high school was she said that “it would have to be that I waited until my senior year to cheer because cheerleading is so much fun!” Karissa says that choosing to do cheer leading over volleyball is one of the best choices she has ever made and says that if anyone is ever questioning doing something they think they would enjoy to just go for it.