Behind the red and gold pom-poms and the white bows, the cheer and dance team puts in a lot of time and practice to bring team spirit to the basketball games. The combined cheer and dance team of 23 members comes together weekly to teach and practice new moves.
The team members said they encourage people to come to games, especially since athletics will be disbanded in a year and a half.
“Not a lot of people come to the games. If we get a crowd involved and get people to the game, that’s what we’re here for,” said Dance Captain Katie Burg, a sophomore studying elementary education from Utah.
The cheer and dance team also riles up the audience at basketball and volleyball games. Tami Toma, the head coach of the team for 11 years, said, “We’re the ones who make people feel comfortable to start screaming and yelling. We are the match light to get it going and let people feel comfortable to have fun.”
Toma also said the cheer and dance team performs at every game and doesn’t do any competitions on the side.
“For me personally, it’s such a great part of the week. I look forward to,” said Toma. “It brings joy to my life to be with the girls and guys, and the dancing and performing as a team. It’s great to perform and work together.”
Being part of BYU–Hawaii, the team has people from all over the world. “It’s such a diverse group of people,” said Burg. “You get to be on the team with people you’d never meet.”
“It’s a good opportunity to get involved with the school,” said Burg about the cheer team. “It’s a good, safe environment to make friends.”
One of those friends is Isaac Cordy, a freshman studying exercise sports science and business management from Texas.“It's a small team. Everybody knows each other and everybody are friends,” he said.
The cheer team uses skills that each team member brings. “One year we had girls with ballet background,” said Toma. “We have great talent here at BYUH.”
Being on the team is challenging and requires a lot of skill, strength, and coordination, at least for Bonfacio Auelua-Filituala, a sophomore studying business management from Alaska.
“I like the physical side of it,” he said. He said he joined the team this past year. He added, “To me personally, joining made me open into trying something new and made me more enthusiastic.”
Cordy said he joined this past semester and loves it. He said he is learning to come to practice and be consistent. “You get better and better,” he said.