“She knows the cheers that she should know, and she’s on like the varsity cheer team while still playing basketball,” Sophomore cheer teammate Khia Hoffmann-Knox said.
Senior Alisa Gibbs goes from shooting baskets on the girls basketball team with a jersey and shorts on, to hurrying into the locker room, rushing to throw her uniform and skirt on to go cheer for the boys basketball team.

Even while participating in two active sports once Senior Alisa Gibbs still manages to handle and make time for both sports.

“It’s difficult practice wise,” Gibbs said. “Basketball practise is longer, and cheer practice is shorter, so I always do cheer first and then just go upstairs to basketball practise”

Having experience in different sports that you actively participate in can give you many different advantages especially if you have multiple sports to handle on top of school.

“I think it helps that since she’s already played basketball previous years she already knows what’s going on and like the plays and stuff,” Senior basketball teammate Alera Kenney said.

Switching from one sport to another is very stressful especially if you only have a small period to get ready for the next sport.

“Everybody calls me Hannah Montana,” Gibbs said. “I play in the game and after I go in the locker room I have like five minutes to change, and make myself presentable, then I run out there to cheer for the boys.”

Starting a new sport isn’t as easy as it may seem no matter the age or experience with joining sports or clubs.

“Cheering brought me out of my comfort zone,” Gibbs said. “I was scared to do it at first, and it made me like being around new people.”

Cheer and Basketball are both challenging sports so staying on top of them both at the same time is definitely a challenge.

When you see someone playing a sport it doesn’t mean they’re doing it for them, or just because they like it. Sometimes people do things simply to make the people they love happy.

“The coaches for the basketball team are all a part of my family, so playing basketball was really more because of the coach’s thing than a teammate thing,” Gibbs said.

Being on a team can be very hectic, but having that one teammate that brings light to the dark or stressful times is very appreciated.

“Shes pretty encouraging,” Kenney said. “She brings a lot of energy to our team too, like she laughs a lot and she’s very loud but in a good way.”

Even though Gibbs juggles two sports at once she still puts lots of effort into them to stay caught up and not disappoint her teammates, coaches, or fans in the stands.

“Shes really good and she tries a lot,” Junior cheer captain Leighanne Keeney said. “She learns stuff that nobody else has, she even made her own cheer.”

Fear can be disencour

aging, and get in the way of things that you could potentially be great at.

“I wish I would have done cheer since my freshman year,” Gibbs said. “I feel like I would have been more confident and someone to look up to because that’s what I try to be so I can help people.”

Gibbs is a senior who has been very active in school since her freshman year so she has plenty of experience in joining clubs and different sports, here’s some advice for you so you know you can do whatever you put your mind to.

“Even if you’re scared you can always just take a little step in and just go for a day or two and if you don’t like it then you know just don’t do it, but don’t b

e scared to turn down anything,” Gibbs said.