By MOLLY DAVIDSON / Staff Writer

HOOVER—A group of nearly 100 aspiring young cheerleaders will get their first taste of Friday night lights at Spain Park High School’s football game on Oct. 9. But before they take the field, they prepared for the big night with members of the Spain Park cheer team.

On Oct. 7 and 8, the Spain Park cheer team held two clinics for middle school and elementary school cheerleaders. The clinics introduced the young cheerleaders to the basics of the sport, from perfecting their motions to simple stunts for the middle schoolers.

“They’re going to learn a cheer, a sideline and a dance (to the fight song),” Spain Park cheerleading coach Ashelie Halla said before the Oct. 8 elementary school clinic.

On game day, the young cheerleaders will accompany the high schoolers and the football players during the pre-game Jag walk. Then they’ll show off what they learned during the clinics in a pregame performance.

“They get to perform on the field… and they get to participate in the Jag walk,” clinic organizer Noele Anglin said. “It’s really exciting.”

The clinics are an annual tradition for the Spain Park high school cheer team, and Halla said many of her current cheerleaders participated in the clinics as elementary and middle schoolers.

The clinics give the young cheerleaders a taste of what it’s like to cheer in high school, and they also give the coaches a chance to meet potential team members before tryouts.

“We primarily draw from our feeder schools to Spain Park,” Anglin said. “(The young cheerleaders) get seen by the coaching staff before they ever tryout.”