No football game is complete without the true creators of team spirit—cheerleaders.
The Vandal Spirit Squad is no exception, with a cheer team working hard to bring their best for every game.
Bella Larson, a third-year cheerleader, and Syncere Griffin, a second-year cheerleader, are the 2024-2025 cheer team captains. Dawson Murphy is this year’s assistant coach, new to the Vandals as of 2024.
Katie Doman, head coach since 2016, is currently on medical leave.
Murphy has been exposed to cheerleading since he was a child. “My mom was a cheer coach growing up,” he said. “I just followed in her footsteps. After preschool, I would be picked up and taken to cheer practice.”
Murphy started cheering himself in eighth grade and continued through high school and college. After he graduated, he began coaching cheerleading at the high school level. He moved to the area a year ago and saw the job posting for the Vandal cheer team.
“I wanted to take coaching to the next level,” Murphy said.
The UI cheer season runs from July to April, beginning with three weeks of summer camp in July with practices twice a day. Once the school year starts, the cheerleaders practice five days a week, both individually and with other groups.
“It’s technically only supposed to be four times a week, but for cheer, we practice alone on Tuesdays. Thursdays and Fridays are with the dance team,” Griffin said.
“And then we also practice with the marching band Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” Larson added. “So it’s a Monday through Friday dedication.”
To effectively support the other Vandal athletic teams, the cheer team must first be supportive among themselves. The team is especially supportive of each other when practicing stunts, said Griffin.
“If a group is struggling, we try to be very motivating,” she said. “When we’re learning new stuff, we form a circle around each other, motivating each other and talking everyone through everything.”
The team captains said they commonly gathered after practice to talk about what good things they were able to accomplish that day as an additional form of support.
Larson addressed some of the misconceptions centered around cheerleading. Often people will criticize cheerleading and say that it is less than a sport or not a sport at all, she said.
“Cheerleading is a sport—we practice five days a week,” Larson said. “We are athletic; we are athletes.”
Furthermore, she said that it is not an easy sport. The cheer team requires tryouts, and each member is recruited onto the team. The selected cheerleaders are quite talented, and all are hard-working athletes.
Because some people don’t consider cheerleading a sport, it often gets overlooked that cheerleaders need funding just as much as any other team.
“We need funding all the time,” Larson said. “We have a goal every year to raise $80,000 in order for us to do our jobs as cheerleaders for the university, including getting uniforms and equipment and being able to travel to away games.”
This funding will also help get the cheer team to nationals, which alone costs nearly $20,000.
“It’s something we really want to pursue. We work really hard every season to be on the sidelines and support other athletes, but we also work all season to go to nationals in California,” Larson said.
For anyone considering trying out for the Vandal cheer team, the team captains encourage them to attend their recruitment clinics, occurring once a month from October to January. Further information can be found here.
“It’s a good way for people to come and get a feel for our program,” Griffin said. “Coming to the recruitment clinics can help you make sure that this is where you want to be and learn what kind of skills are required.”
“We want athletes that are determined, strong-minded, and team-oriented,” said Larson. “Teamwork and good leadership are what makes our team awesome.”
Rebekah Weaver can be reached at [email protected].