Kimberly Vallejo is a freshman who has proven her talent and made it to the varsity cheer team at Neuwirth, using and completing advanced skills despite not having cheer experience.
What exactly is the need for experience? Everyone always says how important it is, and yes, experience is overall better for people to know exactly what they are doing, but sometimes it’s overrated and unnecessary.
Enter Kimberly Vallejo, a 9th grader on our lovely Neuwirth cheer team, who made it onto varsity: (The highest level on the hardest-skilled main team representing the school).
At the beginning of her first year of high school, Kimberly was surprisingly picked to be on varsity, and she explained, “Honestly, I feel like I was going to JV because I didn't have experience, and I was just a freshman.” Yet without any type of experience, she kept her head up and strived throughout this whole year, helping her team build to the top.
People might think these skills are easy but the truth is cheer is one of the most dangerous sports out there and while it may look like it is all about cheering people on it also takes a lot of confidence, strength, and sweat from the people that make the hardest physical skills look visually easy to do. Kimberly is one of those people with the best confidence, which allows her to have very few mental blocks to stop her from being one of the most skilled cheerleaders on the team. “It does get stressful sometimes, but it is fun, and I keep going.” An outgoing and hopeful character guides her, and at times, she uses cheer as a distraction, leading her to have complete focus and commitment to her team even when things get hard.
If you ask anyone, they agree that Kimberly is a very kindhearted and sweet person who cares a lot for others. Her boyfriend, Jacob Reyes, says, “Kimberly is a very nice person, she always cares about others, and I am very proud and happy that she made it on the varsity team as a freshman.”
Being a flyer is scary and challenging, and with that comes mental blocks. “Someone who helped me out with the mental block was Gracee Mejia (11). I look up to her, and she makes me a better flyer.. She’s like a sister whom I look up to a lot.”
Gracce Mejia, her secondary base, believes Kimberly is capable of a lot: “I do see the progression. I remember her first time doing a lib and hitting, at first she couldn't do the skills other stunt groups were doing like the hand up but now she is progressing so much that she is doing the Chartwell-ups I think her progression is amazing and if she continues it will be even bettera if she follows it through”
Furthermore, from the opinion of Neuwirth’s Best cheer coach, Ms. Morales (Coach Mel), has even taken time out of her day to share these words about one of her outstanding cheerleaders, Kimberley. “She had a lot of potential… she learns how to take criticism well and is pretty responsible for her age.” Although Kimberley has her times because she is, of course, still human, Coach Mel shares, “She continues to surprise me every day.”
After every challenge, Kimberly Vallejo has always seen it through, being a good scholar and a great cheerleader with all her teammates. Kimberly has mentioned that so far, she has been used to and is very happy with her journey of being a part of the Varsity cheer team, leading her to now consider continuing cheer as she goes to college after her 3 more years of high school.
