After a two year hiatus, cheerleading is returning to Dickinson College as an all-inclusive cheer team.

The perspective group is in the process of becoming a registered club on the Dickinson campus.

Cheerleading was an unofficial sport at Dickinson two years ago, but fizzled out when the senior class of 2014 graduated and too many members left.

Aliya Nichols ’20 and Sarah Ursini ’20 are behind the hopeful reappearance of a cheer team.

“We both love cheerleading so much and we think it’s such a great experience; it’s so much fun…” said Ursini.

They have received an abundance of support from students on campus. “There has been a lot of interest, I believe as of right now we have 40 signatures of interest, double the required amount, which is really amazing to see,” said Ursini.

Ursini and Nichols aim to start with a non-competitive team.

“We plan to be a club sport team, which is a noncompetitive team,” said Ursini.  “Competing in cheerleading requires a lot of funding, time and equipment. It’s a high risk sport as you get into more elite levels of stunting that’s required in competition, and many of the national standards require a licensed coach for competition level stunting and performance, so that would be a much longer term goal.”

As of now, Ursini and Nichols are looking forward to cheering at home basketball and football games.

The cheerleading club does not require that its members have any previous experience.  “We would love to get our new members acclimated to the sport, learn basic cheers, sideline dances and lower-level stunting,” explained Ursini. As the club grows, Ursini and Nichols hope to advance to “[including] half-time routines, tumbling and more elite stunting elements.”

They are currently in the process of becoming a recognized group on campus through formal recognition by student senate and club committee. Ursini said that she and Nichols “hope to get the team started by basketball season.”

With the beginning of the new club in sight, Ursini and Nichols are eager to jump in feet first.  Ursini commented that, “…you really become a family and we’re looking forward to finishing the club creation process so we can start up!”

For anyone interested in the cheer team, Ursini and Nichols can be contacted at their Dickinson emails: [email protected] and [email protected] respectively.

Tommy Koide ’20, Contributing Writer, also contributed to the reporting of this article.