Cheerleading Coaches Bring Experience and Passion

With new coaches Ms. Taylor and Ms. Graham, the cheerleaders marched to Midwood Field for Homecoming. Photo Credit: Rana Abedo

By NOELLE DUMONT

One teacher stepped down, so two stepped in. Ms. Imani Taylor, an algebra, geometry, and trigonometry teacher, is now also a new cheerleading coach. She is teaming up with another algebra and geometry teacher, Ms. Kiera Graham. 

“It feels great being the new coach,” said Ms. Taylor. “I am able to get to know more students, and they are able to get to know me.”

Ms. Graham said, “I absolutely love team-coaching with Ms. Taylor.”

Ms. Graham has coached cheerleaders before. “I love coaching the cheerleaders,” she said, “but it’s a little overwhelming sometimes. Working with the girls is exciting, tiring, hard, and new.”

“But I have to say, these girls are very original dancers,” she added. “Each one has their own personal style and personality, which is very cool when we’re coming up with new cheers.” 

Both teachers had their own squads back when they were in school. Ms. Graham used to be a cheerleader at Midwood.

Ms. Taylor said, “I was a cheerleader in my elementary school years grades 3-6, and then after that, I was on a step team in high school and throughout college.”

“When I became the cheerleading club advisor,” Ms. Taylor explained, “I did tryouts, and some of the old cheerleaders came to me and asked if they could help teach some of the cheers.” It didn’t matter if you were an old cheerleader or not, everyone had to try out if they wanted to be on the new team. 

Ms. Graham said, “While choosing who should be on the new cheer squad, I looked for energy, loud voices, who had improved throughout tryouts, and how they balanced cheering with their grades.”

“I did it similar to like how my old coach chose me for the team,” she said. “We did tryouts in our usual spot at Marine Park, and Ms. Taylor and I made our decisions.”

“It is a lot of work, but I’m happy to work,” Ms. Taylor said. “They are teenagers, and they all have their own personalities.” 

After working all week, from early in the morning to mid-evening, what do Ms. Taylor and Ms. Graham do on the weekends?

Ms. Graham said, “I love going to concerts, anything with good music. I’ll go with a friend or a group of friends. And on my free time, I practice doing makeup. I don’t usually wear makeup because I never have the time, but I’m getting good at it.” 

Ms. Taylor, on the other hand, loves to binge watch Harry Potter movies.

“I love Harry Potter,” she said. “Also, I love spending time with my family. We go on adventures to new places and things like that.”

Lastly, Ms. Taylor told me, “My passion is the process of putting together a cheer with art and creativity in it, when the cheer, steps, dance moves, and the music all come together as one.”

Ms. Graham said, “My passion is teaching sports. Cheerleading is definitely a sport, and the squad definitely works out a lot. In the future, I would love to expand into a stunt team.”