“One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven,” the crowd shouts out to the cheerleaders as they are doing their new signature push-ups after the first touchdown.

To start off a new year, Tigard High School Cheer thought it was necessary to add a new and exciting tradition in order to get the crowd more involved! Inspiration to get the students of Tigard High involved was from University of Oregon. The University of Oregon cheerleaders do push-ups as well, which seemed to capture their student section’s attention. Not only did Tigard’s cheerleaders think it was necessary to get the crowd involved, but the Tigard High football team as well.

“I want them to know we’re here for them and know there is support when they look at the sidelines,” said senior Maranda Henderson.

Knowing that some people assume that cheerleading is not a sport, Tigard Cheer thought it would show the students that cheerleading really can be hard and earn some more respect.

“People think cheering is easy and not a sport, so in order to prove it is not as easy as it looks we thought it would be a good idea to add push-ups,” said senior Meaghan Marks.