Spirit is a vigorous sense of membership in a group, the B-CC cheerleading and poms team have brought spirit to the Bethesda for 50 decades, often with some underestimation on the part of their peers.

 

B-CC’s cheerleading team is there to provide spirit for the student body. The first cheerleading squad began in 1927. The team consisted of only male members, who only cheered at varsity soccer games. In 1928 a speech teacher, Mrs. Mosley began a club that was separate from the cheerleading team. She created this club so the students could cheer at both boy’s and girl’s varsity games. The new pep club too consisted of mostly males with the back up of some girls assistants. They were required to attend all every varsity game equipped with banners, poms, and other things to pep up the games. At the time the pep club was created students were not required to try out, but they were very much encouraged to only join the club if they wanted to make spirit in Bethesda at a all time high.

 

In 1946, two years after the football team had been created at B-CC girls were allowed to be apart of the cheerleading squad. This new policy was mainly because not enough boys attended the games. They figured by having girls cheer it would in turn result to having a larger crowd base.

 

Try outs were not so easy for eager cheerleaders back in the day! Students had to try out before an assembly held for the entire school. There was definitely no room for nerves, as the B-CC students wanted to see what the cheerers had to give. They were eventually selected by the already chosen captain, co-captain, and SGA representative. The cheerleaders duties were to cheer at home and away varsity games, they also cheered at pep rallies. The cheerleaders continued the be the only source of spirit for B-CC for almost 20 years, until the formation of the Poms team was assembled. This was a new and fresh team that could be mistaken for cheerleading back then, but brought a twist by adding dancing.

 

The Poms team, formally known as the drill team started at B-CC in 1947. The team was organized when then rival school Blair High School had a drill team that  performed at a football half time show. This was something new that students at B-CC had not seen but were eager to learn about. Girls trying out for the team were assigned to try out in groups of three in front of coaches, faculty members,  and captains. They were judged on a number of things ranging from dance techniques, precision of marking, and routines that they were thought. The team consisted of 18-22 and the girls with the highest scores were selected for the team. Along with performing at football and basketball half time games, the poms team also competed at competitions. To raise money to compete and buy uniforms the poms teams often held bake sales and car washes, much of which are still done until today.