As the day of the cheer competition drew nearer, Gonzaga Family Room 312 was busily preparing for the first house event of the school year. Members of our family room joined the rest of the house to practice the cheer on Tuesday, and we sounded really good. On Thursday, Donna Lawhorn ‘21, Casey Walsh ‘22 and other members of Family Room 312 finished painting the signs for our cheer which spelled out “G-O-N-Z-A-G-A”. The buzz around the competition continued to grow on Friday, and when we met in our family room that afternoon, we put on face paint, glitter, and hair ribbons, provided by our dean and family room teacher Ms. O’Malley, to show our Gonzaga spirit.

We got out to the field for the competition with the rest of our house. We were the first house to perform and were super hyped. I encouraged all of our Family Room to cheer as loud and enthusiastically as they could because everyone participating was going to make our cheer one hundred times better. Family Room 312 took my words to heart and rocked it along with the rest of Gonzaga.

After performing, I talked to members of our family room Chris Ruetschle ‘23 and Izzy Ramby ‘21. Chris told me that getting loud and involved for the cheer made the competition much more enjoyable, especially since everyone was cheering together and no one felt singled out or embarrassed. Izzy said that our cheer sounded very strong and organized and definitely in the running for first place.  

Gonzaga claimed fifth place for the cheer competition. Although we hoped for a higher finish in the standings, I can attest that our family room had fun with this competition. Everyone got involved, and we got to know each other better through working together and practicing with each other. Family Room 312 also agreed that the cheer competition was a great way to set the tone for the football game that night.