Super Seniors

In the three years since Har-Ber High School opened its doors in Springdale, Anne Martfeld has dedicated herself to building a solid foundation for the spirit programs.  This year, that dedication paid off with success for both the pom/dance team and the cheer team at competition.  Cheer recently wrapped up both regional and state championships.  While Anne deserves much of the credit for the success of the program, she is hesitant to take it.  Instead she points to her group of seniors this year as the backbone of the program.

Both Anne and the seniors started at Har-Ber with dedication to making spirit groups something special.  While many members of spirit groups quit during their senior year to enjoy the view from the stands and not have to work so hard, there are 12 seniors finishing this year at Har-Ber, 10 of which have been with the program since its inception three years ago, 1 that has cheered for two years and 1 that joined this season, who decided that “instead of enjoying the view, they wanted to be the view”.  This group has been the drive behind the success of the program.  “From the moment this group made the cheer squad at Har-Ber, this became a three year commitment for them.  They wanted to start the tradition of beginning and ending with something strong.  It is real important to these seniors that this does not just start with them, but continues throughout the history of our school, that spirit groups are taken seriously and are an important part of the school culture”, Anne says. 

Anne describes this group as “unique”.  They were the drive behind camp, summer practices, pep rallies, football season, basketball season and most important to them, the state championship.  They were the heart and soul of the group and really stepped up to stick to an early morning practice schedule, encourage the sophomores and juniors and make sacrifices when it came time to do what was best for the team.

Anne has been coaching cheerleading, pom squads and drill teams for 10 years total, 3 of those years at Har-Ber so she has seen many spirit squad members during that time period.  She has been fortunate to have had dedicated leadership all three years from her senior captains, Morgan Linn and Brooke Morrow, who she credits with being strong leaders.  As for the other 10 seniors in this group, she feels that she would be unable to do them all justice with individual information in the limited space available for this article.  What she can say is that “each group has all of its main characters: a clown, a leader, a friend, a prankster, a crier, a lover and a guide and we have each and every one of these in spades.  Each of these cheerleaders is so unique and being all of these characters have made the Har-Ber cheer squad something to be proud to say you are a part of.  It is so special to have seen most of these lovely young ladies and gentleman grow before my very eyes and know that they will always have a special place in my heart and the very heart of Har-Ber High School.”