More faces, more stunts: Cheer’s journey since disaffiliating from varsity sports
- Virginia Vaughan, Staff Writer
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
In the fall of 2023, the Willamette cheer team disaffiliated from varsity sports, in part due to the university being unable to pay the insurance to be able to do certain stunts, said cheer cocaptain Brooke Busby (’27). Despite the challenges that came with disaffiliation, club leaders say the team has since found a new identity as a club by being able to do more stunts and recruit more students.
The insurance that Willamette used for its cheer athletes didn’t allow for the waist of a flyer to go above the head of the base, or the person holding the other. This limited the stunts that the cheer team could perform at football and basketball games. Ultimately, it was the team’s decision to become a club rather than an affiliated varsity sport, a move which allowed them to practice movements like extensions, in which the base lifts the flyer into the air above their head with a straight arm.
Currently, cheer finds itself mostly student-run, with cocaptains Sophia Rabbanian (’26) and Busby (’27) taking a lot of the administrative reins. Setting up the new contract that ensures the coaches are paid has become an issue this year because now that cheer is a club, their funding comes from the Associated Students of Willamette University (ASWU). Before the switch, coach Brianna MacInnes was part of the Willamette staff, but now she relies on the ASWU funds to be paid.
Rabbanian said that other difficulties with disaffiliation have centered around communication between other sports, which is unique to cheer because their performances rely on other sporting events. Cheer is no longer a part of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, or SAAC, which is where most of the communication about spirit wear for games is figured out. The loss of membership in this administration has made it more difficult to get the word out for themes, such as wearing gold for certain games, Rabbanian explained.
Also, recruitment was rough for the first year after disaffiliating. “We had a really old team; most people were juniors or seniors. We weren’t getting as many newcomers as we were losing people for a couple years,” Rabbanian said. But this year, cheer has found success in its recruitment methods: the team had 10 members in the fall 2025 semester, doubling last year’s count.
The cheer team recruits largely via social media and tabling during Bearcat Days. Cocaptain Busby added, “Now that we are a club, we also have the ability to recruit current students through the club sports events and the fall activities expo.” She explained that this access to other recruiting methods has been a large part of their recent success.
As a senior, Rabbanian hopes that the groundwork laid down will benefit future years and future cheer teams. “My whole time being here I’ve just wanted to grow the program, to continue to have a fun and close team,” she said.