![Run Like The Wind! Maddox Murry (8th) runs at a cross country meet on September 25. He ran his hardest, and just locked in, just like at every meet. “My brain just stops and my body just operates itself and somehow navigates [itself] like autopilot,” Murry said.](https://mmsrewind.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-26-11.35.51-AM.png)
For 8th grader Kynadi Rivas and 6th grader Quinn Brentlinger, cheerleading is more than just a short lived past time, but a long term commitment. While one has been on the middle school team for the past two years, and the other just joined, they both believe they wouldn’t be the same without it. For Kynadi, she says, “I wouldn’t be able to be so flexible,” and for Quinn, she says, “I wouldn’t be as athletic and wouldn’t have done another sport.”
Kynadi Rivas has been cheering for 7 years, two of which being on the MMS cheer team, and it all started from watching Barbie movies and thinking it looked cool. For her, the best part has been “Learning all the new routines” and the biggest difference as she’s grown up is that, “We don’t wear red lipstick anymore.” A big part of being a cheerleader is engaging the crowd and performing for them no matter what. According to Kynadi, when she’s out there she feels “excited and feels happy.”
On the other hand, Quinn Brentlinger has been cheering for 6 years, with none so far being on her school’s team. While mostly focusing on competitive cheer, she’s had her fair share of sidelines over the years. Originally inspired to cheer by her mom, a former cheerleader herself, Quinn says, “I wanted to be on the team because I like competitive but wanted to try school too,” thus landing her in the spot she holds on the team now. For her, the best part has always been tumbling but she believes that will change “probably to stunting,” over the next year and is most looking forward to “cheering at the games.”
While both Kynadi and Quinn have had different experiences with cheer over the years, they both have similar advice for their younger, cheerleader selves. For Kynadi her advice is “Never give up, keep practicing your tumbling now,” and for Quinn, it’s, “To not give up if something isn’t working.” Both of them may have different opinions on what they like best about cheerleading, but at the end of the day, they both want to remind themselves that it takes hard work and they shouldn’t give up, no matter what.
