Speaker 1: Beyond the Megaphone is a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and the College Athletes Network. Hey everybody, this is Nathan
Speaker 1: and you're listening to Beyond the Megaphone on the College
Speaker 1: Athletes Network. Please subscribe to the podcast that you never
Speaker 1: miss a new episode. This can easily be done via
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app. Also, you can find me
Speaker 1: on Instagram and Twitter at our Nathan Paris and you
Speaker 1: can find me on Instagram at Cassidy with a double
Speaker 1: yse Nie stuff. We got that Twitter? Have you No?
Speaker 1: I actually went on my Twitter, um today. I have
Speaker 1: a Twitter Twitter, but it's I haven't used it since.
Speaker 1: So a lot of my Twitter feed is like mag
Speaker 1: convoys like nash Gar and Cameron Dallan direction one direction
Speaker 1: type beat. So Cassie, how are you doing. I'm doing amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: living a dream. I'm living a dream. So what's really
Speaker 1: nice about me and Castie's lives is we are constantly busy, um,
Speaker 1: which is good. We we do it to ourselves, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I would not change it by
Speaker 1: any means, but it definitely gets a little. I blame
Speaker 1: nobody but myself. What's that? I blame nobody but myself? Oh, yeah, yah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a million percent in my fault. So hey,
Speaker 1: we want to talk about expectation versus reality in terms
Speaker 1: of the world of game day cheerleading, because a lot
Speaker 1: of times, you know, we're sharing for the fans and
Speaker 1: all the fancy is a bunch of people and these
Speaker 1: weird costumes being really loud and really extra for no reason, right,
Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of like the basic like, oh
Speaker 1: here come, the cheerleader is always doing the most. So basically,
Speaker 1: what we want to do today is talk about all
Speaker 1: of the different things at or kind of behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: things that maybe most people don't see or don't think
Speaker 1: about when we do what we do. So what the
Speaker 1: ladies get to do is get up two hours before
Speaker 1: we're supposed to be there and put on what's called
Speaker 1: game day ready. Castie, would you explain to them what
Speaker 1: game day ready is. See, I feel like I'm not
Speaker 1: the right person to talk to you about this because
Speaker 1: I do my game day makeup every day, but today, um,
Speaker 1: like I can get ready pretty fast, but like a
Speaker 1: lot of the girls don't wear makeup every day, so
Speaker 1: it takes them like a little bit longer. I'm just
Speaker 1: like used to I'm used to slang so hard every day. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you got you like your own sleigh routine. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what's your fastest time? M five minutes? Not by choice?
Speaker 1: Explain that for me? Um, what was that like the
Speaker 1: second game, second second football game of this season, so
Speaker 1: we got to be there a fifteen and yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a whole another situation. But um, I did not wake up.
Speaker 1: I didn't wake up like that was not like I
Speaker 1: was asleep. I could have slept for so long and
Speaker 1: I don't know how I got up. And it's by
Speaker 1: the grace of God that I set an alarm for
Speaker 1: eight am because I was planning on leaving at eight am,
Speaker 1: So I was like, you're I gotta be out the
Speaker 1: door alarm. That was my like okay, you gotta you
Speaker 1: gotta go, like you gotta go now. No that it
Speaker 1: turned out to be my no, you gotta get out
Speaker 1: of bed alarm. And I literally remember I was putting
Speaker 1: on my uniform, putting my hair in, like my my
Speaker 1: bow in, and also like simultaneously like letting my lashes dry.
Speaker 1: Like I was a mess. And I think I left
Speaker 1: my room at like eight oh seven. So you did
Speaker 1: all that in seven minutes and I still slid, like
Speaker 1: I literally ate that game up. Well, I was like,
Speaker 1: I was thinking about like when you showed up and
Speaker 1: you told us, You're like, yeah, I get up ten
Speaker 1: minutes ago. I was like, there's no way because it
Speaker 1: looked like normal. Luckily, I normally, for at least like
Speaker 1: morning games, and usually for um like afternoon games, I'll
Speaker 1: curl my hair the night before, so then I just
Speaker 1: have to like, oh this, Like I just like huh.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Luckily that night before I curled my hair,
Speaker 1: so that was out of the way, and then I
Speaker 1: will say I didn't wear any foundation that day. So crazy. God,
Speaker 1: I hate the guy's routines so much. I was, um,
Speaker 1: j C, he's the night, not tonight, the day of
Speaker 1: the last game we just had when we have to
Speaker 1: be there at like and Jonah had just gotten on
Speaker 1: the shower and I was like, we have to leave soon.
Speaker 1: Like you realize that Jona is a funny example because
Speaker 1: he doesn't have to do his hair. He's like trained
Speaker 1: his story to do exactly what it needs to do.
Speaker 1: Like it looks styled, don't even wrong, it looks style,
Speaker 1: it looks good. But it's like he's trained his hair
Speaker 1: too dry and exactly what it looks amazing. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: so funny. Yeah, I mean if it's uh, we gotta
Speaker 1: I'm like, um five, I'll start like that's insane. It's
Speaker 1: as you put on your uniform and and I'm a
Speaker 1: bad example because I like to, you know, make sure
Speaker 1: all my hair is looking good or everything. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it probably takes like three minutes, you know. Three. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it must have to shave. That's a different story, but
Speaker 1: like ten. Yeah, your life is so hard. Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 1: So after we all get ready, after we all get there,
Speaker 1: we go into the stadium. For football, we use the
Speaker 1: corners locker room. For basketball, we have our own locker room,
Speaker 1: our locker rooms in the Simbly Hall, so it makes
Speaker 1: it nice and easy. Um, and we just hang out,
Speaker 1: you know, vibe. Um. I usually in charge of the
Speaker 1: music because I feel like most people come in n
Speaker 1: not really ready to roll, and I'm like that has
Speaker 1: a change, So play some good music, get everybody going,
Speaker 1: act a little bit over the top, just to get
Speaker 1: everybody awake most of the time. Um. And then we
Speaker 1: go to let's let's go football first, Yeah, go to
Speaker 1: the walk that actually might be one of my favorite
Speaker 1: parts of game day. I think that's my favorite part
Speaker 1: of game really, like overall, it's definitely top three for me,
Speaker 1: like overall, as in football season or like basketball and
Speaker 1: football season, football season. Probably, yeah, at least this year,
Speaker 1: walk us to what is the walk because now you
Speaker 1: have both perspectives, do have both perspectives. Ten minutes prior
Speaker 1: to like the team walking out, Um, there's the Red Steppers,
Speaker 1: which is our dance team, and then there's our team,
Speaker 1: and then the band is behind us and the band
Speaker 1: the Marching hundred, Marching hundred, yes band they like, will
Speaker 1: play um different you know band chance and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and we'll cheer along with them. We'll do some cheers
Speaker 1: here and there and just be super obnoxious until it's
Speaker 1: time for us to leave. So the cream co ed
Speaker 1: team will lead the walk, um, and they'll join in
Speaker 1: the pathway at the very end and just you know,
Speaker 1: cheer on the football team as they're walking into Memorial Stadium.
Speaker 1: And then a Crimson Ladies will stand on the side
Speaker 1: of the stairs and just like cheer along to Indiana
Speaker 1: or Indiana, which is our school song as the team
Speaker 1: boks by. So you guys don't move when they walk.
Speaker 1: We do that straight to the tail game. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know that because I can't see like that far
Speaker 1: down The path we're talking about is like about a
Speaker 1: hundred yards. Um, so maybe not like me, I have
Speaker 1: no concept of it's pretty far, and so when there's
Speaker 1: all these people, it's like you can't really see what's
Speaker 1: going on. I always try and like find like the
Speaker 1: end of the football line because I'm like, I can
Speaker 1: only say, like, let's go Indiana. So many times it
Speaker 1: was pretty cool because we get too high five other
Speaker 1: players and it's like, I'm not Gonnas. The last game,
Speaker 1: Tom Allen gave Jaden a high five let's go, and
Speaker 1: things like the first thing that happened Tom Allen. I
Speaker 1: love Tom Alan every time he comes over and gives
Speaker 1: all the cheerleader sci fis before the game. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Just a very down Toroth guy. Um okay, So the walk,
Speaker 1: that's what happens there. I really enjoy it. I love
Speaker 1: hearing the band because that's my roots, and I always
Speaker 1: get to see them march on. I get to see
Speaker 1: them march afterwards and get to uh see all my
Speaker 1: friends who are still in the band, which is really fun. Um,
Speaker 1: let's talk about when we have some of the media there,
Speaker 1: because really what I you like to utilize us as
Speaker 1: an extension of the marketing department because we're all about
Speaker 1: you and we're always over the top, so it's like perfect, Um,
Speaker 1: we'll have big ten game day college game day. We
Speaker 1: had that one once last year I think, um, and
Speaker 1: then recently we had Fox Sports come, which was really cool.
Speaker 1: I didn't get to go to that didn't get really
Speaker 1: what do you do with the alumni them? That was
Speaker 1: actually super cool. It was really sweet to there, Like
Speaker 1: it was just it was a cheer alumni was just
Speaker 1: alumni alumni in general. But they like loved that we
Speaker 1: were there. They loved talking to us. And I got
Speaker 1: to talk to like a lot of really cool people
Speaker 1: and actually quite a few of them there had like
Speaker 1: girls who had cheered um at I you before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was it was really cool, super sweet people umly
Speaker 1: appreciated us. It was very low key, just like us
Speaker 1: walking around as there. Um, they had like breakfast foods
Speaker 1: and it smells so good. Oh my gosh, it smells
Speaker 1: so freaking good over there. But um, it was really fun.
Speaker 1: Well okay, so Fox Sports was pretty cool because I
Speaker 1: mean you would not believe the cameras that were over there.
Speaker 1: I mean probably. I was talking to Ryan about it
Speaker 1: and he was like, was that so cool? And I
Speaker 1: was like, Brian, I wasn't there. I wasn't even there. Okay,
Speaker 1: come on, Brian ran But so they had like, um,
Speaker 1: the stage that was like, you know, a little football
Speaker 1: field was the stage, and then they had like the
Speaker 1: Fox Sports robot guy out there. It was like doing
Speaker 1: his thing. So that was kind of cool. Um, there
Speaker 1: was an unfortunate amount of Michigan fans that had like
Speaker 1: snuck into that area, so like it was almost split.
Speaker 1: I was like, are you kidding me? Um? But we
Speaker 1: we got to do all that, and then we were
Speaker 1: on the TV and you could see like what was live,
Speaker 1: so that was kind of keeping you involved. Um. I
Speaker 1: was like right behind Hayden, so it didn't really get
Speaker 1: a lot of FaceTime there. I was lately behind Hayden
Speaker 1: and JP. I was like, great, so I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be seen at all on the TV, just my forehead
Speaker 1: just peeking over JP's shoulder. So it's fine. Those kind
Speaker 1: of things before the game is just something that it
Speaker 1: really just keeps us involved all three hours before kickoff.
Speaker 1: I mean you think about we're pretty much going NonStop
Speaker 1: from if it's a new kickoff, we got to essentially
Speaker 1: be there at at the latest, right and then we
Speaker 1: started nine and we're on our feet, moving running around
Speaker 1: meeting people. We're in the like the tailgate lots and
Speaker 1: things like that, like saying hi to people. Some you got.
Speaker 1: You get the little nuggets that come up and want
Speaker 1: to take a picture, and that's always so fun. Um.
Speaker 1: The little boys like parents are like, dona picture and
Speaker 1: they're like no, they're just so embarrassing. Mom. Yeah, um
Speaker 1: posted up exactly. And uh, Sam and Jet are always
Speaker 1: playing pick up football with the little guys are always
Speaker 1: doing something active. It's scary a break, just relax, you know.
Speaker 1: Those boys eat that up. Oh my gosh. That's so
Speaker 1: that's like their best like that's their best life. Right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, the football game was fun, but I
Speaker 1: get to play with the so um really one here
Speaker 1: that's super fun. Um. So when we talk about the
Speaker 1: pregame stuff for basketball, we do this thing where we
Speaker 1: it's kind of like basically what you did for the
Speaker 1: Oleminal Association. Uh on that football game, we go into
Speaker 1: what's called Cook Hall. Um. It's where a lot of
Speaker 1: the alumni and donors will go before the game and
Speaker 1: we have a little pep talk by some of the
Speaker 1: assistant coaches, and then we're all in there intermingling with people,
Speaker 1: UM saying Hey, this year, I'm gonna be handing out
Speaker 1: my business cards as I'm walking to be like, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe you want to hire me. I'm actually looking for
Speaker 1: a job right now. I'm actually open to the job
Speaker 1: search right now if you were interested in hiring a cheerleader. Um.
Speaker 1: But no, that's super fun and it's just like really
Speaker 1: cool to like not have to be on but like
Speaker 1: still be cheerleading mode with just a couple of people,
Speaker 1: you know, face to face instead of just like looking
Speaker 1: up into the sea of red. That's kind of what
Speaker 1: makes it worth it. Definitely makes it more tiring, but
Speaker 1: I think it makes it worth it because that's where
Speaker 1: you get all the like really cool one on one
Speaker 1: moments with some people, and that's the things you kind
Speaker 1: of remember more so than just you know, everything else
Speaker 1: that we will talk about when we come back. You
Speaker 1: see that glided over to that. Um. When we come back,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about football game day. Okay, we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about when we get into the stadium, UM, talk
Speaker 1: about the run on with the band, Shout out the band, um,
Speaker 1: and just all the stuff that we're doing. UM from
Speaker 1: the first quarter of the fourth quarter. So you are
Speaker 1: listening to Beyond the Megaphone. I'm Nathan and this is
Speaker 1: the College Athletes Network. Welcome back to Beyond the Megaphone
Speaker 1: on the College Athletes Network. This is Cassidy and this
Speaker 1: is Nathan. Subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss
Speaker 1: another show already. So we're in the stadium, everybody's ready
Speaker 1: to roll, and you hear the drum cadenced. I cannot
Speaker 1: tell you how hype every time. I could listen to
Speaker 1: it a million times, and every time when I hear
Speaker 1: that one, two or three or four, bam, and then
Speaker 1: everybody goes, whoa, you know what I'm saying, Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: it's And I have the best job in the whole
Speaker 1: stadium this year because I get to run on the
Speaker 1: all girl Crimson six time national champions soon to be
Speaker 1: seven on the way UM every Saturday. So that's like
Speaker 1: the coolest thing in the world. UM. It's also nice
Speaker 1: because it's like, oh my gosh, there's cast they remember
Speaker 1: when we were on the same team. Um, but also
Speaker 1: because I'm Crimson's biggest fan, true or false, Okay, just
Speaker 1: making sure. So that's super fun. But me and JP,
Speaker 1: me and j Pizzle get to run the big flags on.
Speaker 1: That's been like the dreams since I got to college,
Speaker 1: since I was in the band. Literally, that was like
Speaker 1: one of the selling points when I was trying to
Speaker 1: figure out if I wanted to do band or Yeah,
Speaker 1: the big flag I was like, I want to do that.
Speaker 1: It looks so dope. I want to hold a flag
Speaker 1: dot weighs way too much and wave it all over
Speaker 1: the place in Memorial Studium pretty much. That was sophomore
Speaker 1: year Nathan stot process. Um, so we do that, we
Speaker 1: get to we get to run everybody on. We're down
Speaker 1: in the front um. We try and get that side involved.
Speaker 1: We call that the alumni side. That's where a lot
Speaker 1: of the parents and alumni and just g a people
Speaker 1: are so like they might not be as invested in
Speaker 1: the sports as maybe the other side, which is all students,
Speaker 1: and they're just hyped up ready to roll. So but
Speaker 1: they still do a good job. Every time, you know,
Speaker 1: we're down there. They're pretty interactive, I think. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. It's different for me
Speaker 1: this year because I'm on the side closest to the
Speaker 1: await side. Yeah. So, and especially like the past few
Speaker 1: day I can't go in an episode where I like,
Speaker 1: don't forget out of where I don't forget how to speak. Anyways,
Speaker 1: the past few games there have been a lot of
Speaker 1: away people, so that section like I'm literally cheering to
Speaker 1: the away people and I'm like, here we go. They're
Speaker 1: like boo, And I'm like how many times I hear
Speaker 1: go blue? Too many during the machinan game? I mean.
Speaker 1: That's the thing is, like all we were in the
Speaker 1: Big Ten Conference, so all these amazing teams they have
Speaker 1: this these traveling fan bases that travel so well, and
Speaker 1: so we get to ours and it's like half and half,
Speaker 1: which is unfortunate, but it's fine. Um we do run
Speaker 1: on UM. We get to run the team on. The
Speaker 1: band comes out, they do all their formations, they kill it.
Speaker 1: Of course. UM we're kind of like the ornaments of
Speaker 1: that whole production. UM vocabulary. Yeah, and then and then
Speaker 1: we have the team run on so there's two run
Speaker 1: ons during run on how many times? As I said,
Speaker 1: run on so far, lots of running, lots of cardio
Speaker 1: asthma everywhere. Yeah, it's rough. So then with like six
Speaker 1: minutes ago or maybe like you know, three or four,
Speaker 1: you hear that hear that intro, You hear the fire
Speaker 1: machines start going off, and you know it's it's game time. UM.
Speaker 1: And so then we get to run the team out
Speaker 1: of where they're coming out of. UM. That was kind
Speaker 1: of scary because it's like you got a bunch of
Speaker 1: like three pound athletes behind you and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I really need to pick it up on this one. UM.
Speaker 1: But it's super fun. That's I think that is my
Speaker 1: favorite part of game days. I liked doing the run
Speaker 1: on last year because I didn't have a flag. I
Speaker 1: have a flag this year, and I'm like usually the
Speaker 1: O or the E, and so I'm like, I'm in
Speaker 1: the back. I'm in the back, and I'm just like
Speaker 1: so scared that I'm gonna get you. Hear the steps yeah,
Speaker 1: literally literally, like I can smell the smoke from the
Speaker 1: fire that's like happening. And last year I was like
Speaker 1: at the front and I would just like run. But
Speaker 1: the thing I sucked about that is I'd have to
Speaker 1: run super fast and then run super fast all the
Speaker 1: way back. It's like the full we do the full field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a full two D but like literally put me
Speaker 1: on the team like offensive line right here. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: would you say is the hardest thing about staying engaged
Speaker 1: and staying involved why we're out there on the field.
Speaker 1: In terms of football, definitely the weather. Weather. It has
Speaker 1: a huge impact on like how my game performance is
Speaker 1: because it's there have been games where I'm freezing my
Speaker 1: butt off. I don't think I'm going to survive games
Speaker 1: where I literally had to sit out the last quarter
Speaker 1: because it was so hot, and games where I literally
Speaker 1: came home and like took a like took a shower
Speaker 1: outside because it was raining so hard. Yes, Idaho, Like
Speaker 1: there are very few games that are like good weather.
Speaker 1: Like the last game we had was good weather, but
Speaker 1: it was still a little cold at the prest to
Speaker 1: have been Yes, we've gotten lucky. Yeah this has been lucky.
Speaker 1: But that made up for Idaho. Yeah, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: talk about so Idaho. It was like was it raining
Speaker 1: when we got on the field. It was perfect weather.
Speaker 1: That's what I thought. I thought it was nice, and
Speaker 1: then something bad just had to happen, and it starts
Speaker 1: pouring down rain, like pouring wearing my long lashes, and
Speaker 1: I don't know how they stayed on that game, Like
Speaker 1: I literally don't know how they stayed on the game.
Speaker 1: And my eyes were burning because my last blue was
Speaker 1: like running into my eyes and I couldn't see anything,
Speaker 1: and I just remember like doing um Alma mater, I think.
Speaker 1: And then we went into zombie and I had to
Speaker 1: get into a prep hold a sign and yes, I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure I did a stunt. Did I don't remember
Speaker 1: cut that out because I don't remember if that's true,
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure I got into a stet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we did shoulder sets, so you probably did. It
Speaker 1: was just a prep. Yeah, I don't know. I have
Speaker 1: to look back at that. But that that run on
Speaker 1: pre game was so fun. I was so scared I
Speaker 1: was going to fall. I was like changing the ilex,
Speaker 1: spreading my toes, like trying to run on like my
Speaker 1: flat footage so I didn't slip. So self aware of
Speaker 1: how my feet are moving, socks are like soaking way
Speaker 1: I can feel it like slashing around in my shoes,
Speaker 1: like absolutely disturbing my My shoes smoked so bad after
Speaker 1: that game. Here's the thing about like the extreme weather problems,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean with with football. Most of
Speaker 1: the time, when it's really hot, people will stay. Uh
Speaker 1: that's you know, most people can handle that. Um. When
Speaker 1: it rains, people usually leave. We don't get a lot
Speaker 1: of people to stay. Or when it's like super cold. Um,
Speaker 1: here's something that we can't do is leave. You know,
Speaker 1: we are locked in start to finish and so um.
Speaker 1: And not only just they are on the sidelines. We
Speaker 1: have to be engaged. We have to be calling cheers,
Speaker 1: we have to be stunting when it's safe to do so. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, we have to be for them tumbling Uh
Speaker 1: me not so much getting there almost there, um, trying
Speaker 1: to get there. I'll get it. Um. But you know,
Speaker 1: like it doesn't matter really what the weather is. Like,
Speaker 1: we have to do our job either way. That's how
Speaker 1: Julie always presented to us. It's like it's not exactly
Speaker 1: just showing up, It's a job, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I think that that's been something that kind of
Speaker 1: gets misconstrued from fans to us just like, you know,
Speaker 1: because I'll be done and I'll be exhausted and my
Speaker 1: parents be in town. They're like, all right, how was that.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I just I just need to sleep, dude.
Speaker 1: I feel so bad when like my parents come and
Speaker 1: want to like spend time with me after a game,
Speaker 1: because I will like pass out in like a five
Speaker 1: minute car. Right. Well, it's also just like I've been
Speaker 1: on so long. Yeah, I just knew, like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: just stare at a wall for a couple. Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: talk about a third quarter. So what we do here
Speaker 1: at I you tradition that our cheering program does is
Speaker 1: we actually go into the stands during the third quarter
Speaker 1: to rile up the crowd, uh large or small. We
Speaker 1: are there to try and get the crowd involved and
Speaker 1: keep the crowd involved after halftime. Um. And so that
Speaker 1: is actually one of the hardest things to do because
Speaker 1: you can't stunt because we're on the steps. Um. You
Speaker 1: have to call cheers that are crowd effective because you're
Speaker 1: right next to them and if you're just shouting nonsense,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna listen. Um. What's funny about the guys
Speaker 1: is we have to like kind of move our megs
Speaker 1: to a spot where we're not like deafening the person
Speaker 1: right next to us. So I'm kind of usually just
Speaker 1: pointing it straight up in the air. So I don't
Speaker 1: know how much that's even heard. You guys are pretty loud,
Speaker 1: can you guys hear us on the other side? So
Speaker 1: what the what our two teams do is Cream will
Speaker 1: go on one side, Crimsin will go on the other side. Um,
Speaker 1: I've actually heard you guys a couple of times where
Speaker 1: you can hear us pretty well, at least the guys.
Speaker 1: I can hear the guys like insanely well, like literally
Speaker 1: two rows down for me. Okay, I ton't know is
Speaker 1: that effective? Okay? So and we do that and and
Speaker 1: that's really I think it's fun. I mean I always
Speaker 1: try and find, like, uh, you know, family or you know,
Speaker 1: a group of people to talk to and just be like, hey,
Speaker 1: how's it going. Sometimes I really like talking to the
Speaker 1: away fans, just being like, so, why did you drive
Speaker 1: six hours to watch this game? What are you doing
Speaker 1: in my home? Yeah? Most of them, vast majority are
Speaker 1: really nice. You get a couple of people who you
Speaker 1: know are just actually had quite a few mean people recently,
Speaker 1: but the way people are fans fans, well, it might
Speaker 1: because we're losing. I had one guy I was doing, um,
Speaker 1: I think let's go Hoosiers, and this guy behind me
Speaker 1: was like, put the palm down, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't even want to do this anymore. I catch
Speaker 1: you in now they can. I can get a little
Speaker 1: hostile in the in the stands. I've it's tough going
Speaker 1: into the students like to do that because it's very
Speaker 1: dependent on how we're playing, on what their mood's gonna
Speaker 1: look like. Um. So you know, I've been in there
Speaker 1: one time. We're down by a good amount and it's
Speaker 1: just like your cheer into a brick wall, and they
Speaker 1: just don't want you there. I don't want you there.
Speaker 1: They don't really want to be yelled at. They don't,
Speaker 1: so that kind of gets a little awkward. But again,
Speaker 1: for the most part, people have been nice. People always
Speaker 1: want to yell in the megaphones, and that's always a
Speaker 1: liability because you never really know what they're gonna say
Speaker 1: or they're gonna take it and run. Um. I like
Speaker 1: hold it out to people and say you can't say
Speaker 1: any bad words and you can't hold onto it and
Speaker 1: they'll like try and grab it, and I'm just like
Speaker 1: gripping as hard as I can. I was like, please
Speaker 1: don't run away with this, um so. But I mean
Speaker 1: I think most part our students are super super nice
Speaker 1: to the cheerleaders the students. The students get it, you know,
Speaker 1: because it we're students as well, So I think that's nice.
Speaker 1: Um But yeah, football's football is a lot, I think
Speaker 1: all in all, the just say eight hour days, that's
Speaker 1: like minimum. Yeah. Yeah, it's like a like a literal nine. So, uh,
Speaker 1: what's been really tough for me with grad school has
Speaker 1: been just taking a whole day out of my week
Speaker 1: to not be able to work on really anything because
Speaker 1: afterwards I'm spent. You know, there's not I don't have
Speaker 1: a lot of energy to do anything else. So can
Speaker 1: you imagine doing homework after your football game? I have
Speaker 1: before I had to. Um But yeah, I think football
Speaker 1: is just fun. It's just a whole different animal, and
Speaker 1: it's worth it because just I mean, we're talking about
Speaker 1: Big ten football, you know, it's it's some of the
Speaker 1: best atmospheres that you can imagine. Um So. And then
Speaker 1: when we come back, let's shift gears a little bit.
Speaker 1: Let's go inside to our climate controlled Simon's Got Assembly Hall. Yes,
Speaker 1: we'll take you through some of the ins and outs
Speaker 1: of everything that we have to do for basketball. Yeah. So, um,
Speaker 1: you are listening to Beyond the Megaphone. I'm Nathan and
Speaker 1: I'm Cassidy. This is the College Athletes Network. Yeah, welcome
Speaker 1: back to Beyond the Megaphone on the College Athletes Network.
Speaker 1: This is Nathan and I'm Cassidy. Subscribe to our podcast
Speaker 1: so you never miss another episode. Hate your voice, pick
Speaker 1: the wrong activity to do. Apparently I can't speak either,
Speaker 1: so it's fine, it's fine, you're doing great. Um. So,
Speaker 1: during our break, we were looking at some of the
Speaker 1: photos from last season and we stumbled across the parade
Speaker 1: and I don't think we ever even mentioned the parade
Speaker 1: so far. The parade happened about two months after the
Speaker 1: crazy March Madness moment, and we just want to take
Speaker 1: an aside real quick and like say, that was like
Speaker 1: the craziest experience ever. Um, I think, like genuinely top
Speaker 1: five cheer moments ever, and that's above like several of
Speaker 1: the March Maddess moments, you know, just because it was
Speaker 1: so fun and like we got there and well, originally
Speaker 1: we like, we had no idea we're going to be
Speaker 1: in a car. We were in a car by the way. Um.
Speaker 1: But we got there and went to the car and
Speaker 1: they're like, okay, so you guys will be here and
Speaker 1: then your teammates will be behind you. We were like
Speaker 1: who boa wa what because we had twenty people with us,
Speaker 1: of our of our team. And it was cool because
Speaker 1: it was like the first year I you cheer had
Speaker 1: its own float and everything like that. And then we
Speaker 1: get to the car and it says casting and Nathan
Speaker 1: Heroes of March Madness. I was like, hold on, woo woaho,
Speaker 1: what's what's going on here? Um? So, like it was weird,
Speaker 1: but it was fun and like I think everyone could
Speaker 1: tell that it was like making us a little bit
Speaker 1: yeah weird. So there wasn't a need for us to
Speaker 1: be like hey, like, you know, this wouldn't be our choice,
Speaker 1: because that's the thing that we wanted to really make
Speaker 1: clear when that all that happened was we're still on
Speaker 1: a team. This is not you know, me, it's not her,
Speaker 1: you know, It's just something that happened and it's great
Speaker 1: for our program. So in like examples like this, like
Speaker 1: we got to do that because of that experience. So
Speaker 1: but just so fun Like the pictures are amazing. I
Speaker 1: don't know why I haven't posted any yet, but um yeah,
Speaker 1: just the ones in a lifetime experience. Um, it felt
Speaker 1: like a little celebrity for a couple of minutes. So
Speaker 1: anyway back to game day, um, because we do yeah,
Speaker 1: he's yeah, we're just normally not like in the ind
Speaker 1: f parade. But anyway to basketball. So once you hear
Speaker 1: welcome to the jungle this game time, Yeah, we're ready
Speaker 1: to roll. We run the team out, we get into
Speaker 1: that circle, we get in the way of the opposing team,
Speaker 1: no matter who we're playing, and I love it. It's
Speaker 1: so funny. Um yeah, it's probably scary for y'all, but
Speaker 1: it's really funny. When they're looking straight ahead, they don't
Speaker 1: even see you guys. No. Um, So, cheering basketball is
Speaker 1: a little different than cheering football or really anything else.
Speaker 1: I love basketball. That's my favorite thing to cheer. Okay,
Speaker 1: so tell me about like some of the differences that
Speaker 1: are necessary when you're cheering basketball versus anything else, specifically
Speaker 1: Indiana basketball. Um. I think one thing that makes our
Speaker 1: programs so unique just like and I know it makes
Speaker 1: us unique because when we have done tournaments, I've seen
Speaker 1: like the other cheer teams and how they handle basketball. Um,
Speaker 1: we are cheering of the time, like there is no
Speaker 1: time to breathe. It's it's constant yelling and screaming and
Speaker 1: getting excited and getting the crowd excited because you're like
Speaker 1: three ft away from the people, like they are watching
Speaker 1: your every move that they're hearing every word you say
Speaker 1: is super important. Sorry, Simbly. Hall is not a big stadium, no,
Speaker 1: not at all. Everybody's on top of each other. Everybody's
Speaker 1: trying to see the court and we're all in the
Speaker 1: mix um and just right up on top of people,
Speaker 1: like face to face most of the game. And something
Speaker 1: that's really cool about are you is they give the
Speaker 1: cheer team almost every time out the entire floor. We
Speaker 1: grew out there, and we take this space that is
Speaker 1: free real estate every time out, and like that's something
Speaker 1: that is not common, you know, like they might get
Speaker 1: a corner, you know, but literally every teav TV time out,
Speaker 1: we got routines, we got pyramids, we've got things that
Speaker 1: we're gonna do something, prepare for everything, and all of
Speaker 1: those have to be different than the ones we do
Speaker 1: for football because you can't be over what too high,
Speaker 1: you can't do baskets, you can't do like a lot
Speaker 1: of release stunts. You can't do any like too to
Speaker 1: one pyramids one one pyramids. It can't be two and
Speaker 1: a half high. It's gotta be just a Yeah. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of different like rules and stuff with the
Speaker 1: legality of basketball cheer, and it's similar. The stunting and
Speaker 1: time outs I say, I will say are very similar
Speaker 1: to like what a high school team would experience. The differences.
Speaker 1: It's just constant, NonStop, always doing something and like you
Speaker 1: have to be very quick on your feet to like
Speaker 1: remember what's going on, because these time outs aren't like
Speaker 1: terribly long, but they also like we we jam packed
Speaker 1: them with stuff. Is there's two minutes of just constant moving,
Speaker 1: go go go. Um. Yeah. I think that's where I
Speaker 1: always think that this is where I You Cheer thrives
Speaker 1: because all the other teams they do all this extra
Speaker 1: stuff whatever there's I don't think there's many programs who
Speaker 1: have better game day presence and experience than I You Cheer.
Speaker 1: I mean, we are constantly going yelling, screaming, getting people involved.
Speaker 1: Me and Mel loved finding like little nuggets who are
Speaker 1: courtside or like first couple of rows, and during our
Speaker 1: time out, like when we had the free time, we
Speaker 1: can run over and say hey, how are you, and
Speaker 1: you know, take a little picture and like that was
Speaker 1: that was like the best. I love doing that UM,
Speaker 1: but just being the presence, always being on UM and
Speaker 1: keeping everybody engaged, because those time outs can't get long,
Speaker 1: like you said, so it's our job to be like,
Speaker 1: all right, we're still engaged. Let's go, We're gonna win
Speaker 1: this game. And then you have the greatest time out
Speaker 1: and all of the n C double A the one
Speaker 1: and only William Tell, Yes, William Tell, I didn't. I
Speaker 1: don't do a flag in William Tel. I didn't last
Speaker 1: year and I'm not doing it this year. I've made
Speaker 1: that happen because I can't physically do it like I
Speaker 1: will happen as an attack thoughts too much for me.
Speaker 1: It can get congested in there too, so no, no, no no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no flag for me. So I'm on the side after
Speaker 1: we do the stunt and like do a little like
Speaker 1: one two things I moved to like the sides and
Speaker 1: like clap through the fight, clap through the school song, um,
Speaker 1: and then do school song the Perdue game when we
Speaker 1: did William Tell and I was like center of the
Speaker 1: court for that. I literally felt like everyone was clapping
Speaker 1: for me, like I am the only reason they're watching
Speaker 1: Williams Tell right now, You're on the only reason they're
Speaker 1: at the game. I'm literally the only reason that that moment, Like,
Speaker 1: I literally was like I'm I'm saying literally so much.
Speaker 1: Literally literally, No. I was looking around because I clapped
Speaker 1: through for the first like two times and I was like, Wow,
Speaker 1: They're all looking at me and only me. This is
Speaker 1: my stage, Like hello, that's a pretty common cheerleader. That
Speaker 1: was a very like, very cheer little moment. No. So
Speaker 1: I have one of the big flags for William Tell
Speaker 1: that can get along, that can get a little a
Speaker 1: little much. We're because we go through the song wim
Speaker 1: tell it. It goes through that whole song and then
Speaker 1: you play school song twice. Can you talk about the
Speaker 1: transition though, like that transition from William tad to the
Speaker 1: school song smooth, flawless, smooth, shoutout band again and again
Speaker 1: kill it William. So we go there and it transitions
Speaker 1: to the school song and um me and last year
Speaker 1: with Ethan that she was gonna be a JP Um.
Speaker 1: We're just running the whole time and waving the big
Speaker 1: old flag. I always try and find how close I
Speaker 1: can wave that flag to the away team when they're
Speaker 1: in the time out without hitting them, because that would
Speaker 1: be bad. Um. But just like making making it known that, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: this is giant I you flag is all up in
Speaker 1: your girl, just just for fun of it, you know,
Speaker 1: just to get in their heads just a time. College
Speaker 1: is happening right now, right and they're missing it. So
Speaker 1: that's a little disrespectful, but whatever. Um, yeah, all at all.
Speaker 1: And the biggest thing about the whole point of this
Speaker 1: episode is just to talk about there's a lot that
Speaker 1: goes into producing game day and putting this product out
Speaker 1: that is I You cheer. Um. You know, I'm a
Speaker 1: bit biased being an I cheer leader, but I would
Speaker 1: say we have some of the richest tradition out of
Speaker 1: all teams. That's what I love about it. I love
Speaker 1: the like traditional, this is what we've been doing for
Speaker 1: such a long time. Like the fact that our coach, Julie,
Speaker 1: who has been here for three decades has been doing
Speaker 1: some of the same things in excellence, you know, and
Speaker 1: it has been done in excellence for the past three decades,
Speaker 1: and now it's up to us to remain at such
Speaker 1: a high caliber. That's pretty cool, um. And I think
Speaker 1: that that's like something that you know, maybe people who
Speaker 1: aren't involved with YER don't really understand. It's just because
Speaker 1: you know, you wear that uniform, you wear that non
Speaker 1: breathable fabric in ninety degrees or in a packed assembly hall,
Speaker 1: um for the tradition, you know, and just to say
Speaker 1: that you're a part of something bigger than yourself. Um,
Speaker 1: because it's it's stretches not only to the active members
Speaker 1: of the cheer team, it's all the ones who've been
Speaker 1: here before us and all the ones will be here
Speaker 1: after us. Um. So I think it's pretty cool. Long
Speaker 1: Live William Tell. As always, thanks for listening. To be
Speaker 1: on the Megaphone on the College Athletes Network. Please subscribe
Speaker 1: so you don't miss another episode. I am Cassidy and
Speaker 1: I'm Nathan and we'll talk to you soon m hm.
Speaker 1: Beyond the Megaphone has been a presentation of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and the College Athletes Network