Upward Cheer at Jackson Friends Church

We have partnered with Upward Cheer for girls K-6th grade! Through the program, they will learn all the skills and drills for sideline cheer. It’ll include cheers, dance, low level stunts and basic tumbling. We will be following the Upward model for devotions and practices.

*NOTICE* Hello cheer families!

 As many of you have heard, we are making some changes to our cheer program for the 2024-2025 year. This year we will NOT be participating in the winter basketball season. We came to this decision after surveying a handful of our current cheer families and cheer coaches. The response was very enlightening. Next year we will be moving to FOOTBALL cheer. Below is what we learned from talking to our girls. 

- Our ladies would like the ability to participate in both basketball and cheer. We love this!

- The weather would be kinder to our girls. Snowy mornings are never fun in cheer uniforms. 

- The season would run Aug-Oct. This will slow down before the winter and holiday season begins. With all that is happening at school for our girls, basketball season is a very busy time of year. 

Here is what we learned from our staff and coach’s

- We would love warmer weather and longer days. This makes practice so much easier. 

- October gives us the ability to get out and serve our community. We were offered the opportunity to serve at a few community events during the month of October. We believe this would be a great addition to our program. 

- Football is a newer program with lower participation numbers than basketball. This of course helps with safety. With less cross over traffic between the two programs, we are able to control our environment and enforce rules and regulations more effectively. 

- Relationship building! This is by far our staff’s biggest reason for making the change. This change gives us the ability to enjoy our facilities to the fullest. More gym space, more bible study space and more fellowship space! We love getting to know our families. More space allows us to grow in so many ways. Growth in our relationships, growth with in our program and most importantly growth in our walk with Christ. 

With this change we have a few fun additions. 

We will be offering a cheer camp in the spring / summer. We will also be offering cheer coach training. This will be a one day event for anyone interested in coaching our wonderful girls. Details for both events will be released in April. 

If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to LeaMarie Nathaniel at lnathaniel@jacksonfriends.org.