We all love sports. From the excitement of a seventy yard touchdown, to the roars of a stadium when the game winning goal is made. Or the excitement of a basket toss. Wait, a basket toss? Well, unless you consider cheerleading not a real sport, a basket toss is a thrillingly dangerous stunt. 

“I got an elbow straight to the face resulting in a black eye, busted lip, and my face looked like an airhead for a week,” says Makenzi Brown, sophomore cheerleader. “You can get all sorts of injuries from stunts, some worse than others, but a broken ankle is still a broken ankle regardless of the sport you’re doing.”

Brown has been doing cheer since she was seven years old, and minus freshman year of high school, she has done it ever since. She has excelled in multiple positions on the team throughout her life from being a flyer in elementary, captain in middle school, and currently a backspot in high school. 

Throughout the years, Brown has integrated cheer into her regular life so that it hasn’t interfered with other school responsibilities. She continues to maintain a 3.85 GPA and competes in track as well. “I think track helps with my stamina for my cheer team,” she explains. But when you’ve been doing something for as long as you can remember, how could you not make it work with your regular schedule? “It’s just a part of my life, I don’t think I’d do anything else.” 

Even when Brown is injured on the sideline, she continues to show up to games to support her team, sometimes she will cheer with an injury as well. “You just have to ignore it sometimes if you can,” she says. 

Brown is currently a sophomore at Grantsville, with plenty of time to enjoy cheer. After high school, however, she aspires to go to college. Where she wants to go is still undecided, but this young up and coming cheerleader has got more than enough time to decide.