BLACK HAWKS CHEER​

The girls are trying something new this year:  a Big Sister/Little Sister program.  Each Varsity Cheerleader connects with a Junior Varsity or Freshman cheerleader for the season.  With 54 girls in the program this will give them a chance to form closer bonds between girls and ultimately teams.  

 

For their first Big/Little event the girls made cheer bows for each other.  The Varsity/Bigs made bows for the JV and Freshman/Littles and the JV/Freshmen girls made bows for the Varsity/Bigs.  The secret was that the Littles didn't know which Varsity girl was their Big sister.  When the bows were done. the Little Sisters sat in a circle with their eyes closed, each holding her Big sister bow.  The Varsity Big sister stood behind their little sister holding the bow she made for her.  On the count of three the Littles opened their eyes.  After a few squeals, bows were exchanged and we hope great friendships began.  Special thanks to Christina DiMaggio for choosing all the ribbon and bling to create these beautiful bows.  They turned out so great that the coaches have chosen to have the girls wear their Big/Little Bows on the last day at camp, to show them off at the performance.  

 

The second event for Big/Little week was the First Annual Bloomfield Black Hawks Chant Off.  Each Big and Little teamed up to create a Sideline chant for the upcoming season.  Using a bracket format the whole group evaluated each chant until the ultimate winners were selected:  Kim and Madison!  Their chant will be included in the official Bloomfield Black Hawks Sideline Chant book.  

 

Some Bigs and Littles weren't able to be at practice this week, but no one was left out!  Teammates made Big and Little Bows for anyone out of town and filled in on the Chant Off teams where needed.  After all, this was all designed to support Team Bonding and having a teammate step in for a missing "sister" is just what we wanted.

 

But what does this mean going forward?  Bigs and Littles are connected for the season.  We hope the girls encourage and help each other by text, phone calls, notes and every way social media has created.  We expect the Bigs to cheer on their Littles from the stands and visa versa.  And we know trinkets and momemtos are always appreciated.  Whereever the girls choose to take this is fine.  Pinterest is a great resource for ideas, and just Googling "Big/Little cheerlead" is a good start too.  But this is not designed to cost any money.  Girls should never feel they are expected to buy anything for their Big or Little Sister.

 

Being connected doesn't cost anything but some of your spirit and energy.  After all, that is what a cheerleader is.