Rebecca Schulze enjoyed a memorable freshman season with the Montgomery County basketball cheerleading team last winter.

Schulze got to cheer on both boys and girls basketball teams that turned in outstanding seasons. The girls won 20 games and captured Eastern Missouri Conference and district titles, while the boys finished with 17 wins and won a district championship.

And, to top it off, Schulze got to ride on a charter bus with both teams to the Class 3 sectional tournament at Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia.

“It was really fun,” Schulze said. “It was a really cool experience. There was a lot of energy. With them going that far, it was really cool watching them.”

This year, Schulze is leading a MCHS basketball cheerleading team that has a combined six freshmen and sophomores and one junior. The team also has a new coach in Madelyn Woods, who headed the football cheerleading squad during the fall season.

“It’s nice,” Schulze said. “It’s a different squad, but most of these girls did football cheer.”

The other cheerleaders are junior Myla Woltman, sophomore Gabby Arens and Hannah Blake and freshmen Emily Clark, Gillian Francois and Brianna Stierlin.

Woltman is back for her second year with the cheerleading team, while Arens, Blake, Clark, Francois and Stierlin are first-time basketball cheerleaders. Schulze, Arens and Woltman were on the football cheerleading team last fall.

Blake said Woltman brings so much energy to the basketball cheerleading squad.

“She has an amazing personality,” Blake said. “She’s so fiery.”

Arens has plenty of cheerleading experience. She cheered for the football and basketball teams when she was at Montgomery County Middle School. She joined the football cheerleading team in her freshman year.

“I always liked cheerleading,” Arens said. “I always liked watching the videos online of the professional cheerleaders. I wanted to be a part of something like that. So here I am.”

Blake said she was looking forward to doing cheerleading in any sport for the first time this winter.

“My aunt used to be a cheerleader whenever she was in high school,” Blake said. “She would always put me up in stunts and teach me all of her cheers and everything. I went to mini cheer camp whenever I was younger. That was the most experience I had.”

Clark, who is also a member of the school’s Scholar Bowl team, is also doing cheerleading for the first time. She said her favorite part of the sport is stunting.

“You get to be thrown in the air,” Clark said.

Francois said she’s glad to be part of the basketball cheerleading team in her freshman year.

“I ended up making a lot of new friends,” Francois said. “I’m really liking it.”

Stierlin said the best part of being a basketball cheerleader is watching boys and girls basketball teams in all of the home games.

“They’re fun,” Stierlin said. “They can be aggressive. I really like it.”

Sophomore Abby Arens is the team’s manager. She also worked as manager for the football cheerleading team last fall.