Coppell High School got its first ever cheer manager this academic year.

Senior Abigail Berhe is Coppell High School’s cheer manager. As manager, she does not participate or perform, but is responsible for supporting the team in various ways and working behind the scenes. She also works alongside the cheer captains and their roles.

“She does not perform with us, but is just there to support the team with preparation for an event, and is there on the sideline for every football game,” JV and Varsity Cheer Coach Deb Sartin said. “She is there on the occasions when we need to run to the locker room for something, and helps with giving the team gift to the other visiting cheer team. She acts like a third coach; she is there to help with [such] things or take care of paperwork.”

Berhe realized she enjoys leading and oversight more than being a part of the crew and cheerleading. Having done gymnastics from elementary to middle school, she still wanted to contribute and be a part of the team in some way, so she decided to create the position of cheer manager herself.

“My friends and I talked to the coaches last [school] year [Alexis Irons and Deb Sartin] about the [idea] of me being cheer manager, because there is a basketball manager, there is a volleyball manager, but no cheer manager,” Berhe said.

As the name suggests, this role requires Berhe to be efficient and organized with her tasks.

“She is good at helping us with managerial things, like keeping track of [who has turned in what], making sure that the girls who are cheering for at a game are signed up for that game, or doing little things for us in the locker room or office,” Sartin said.

Being cheer manager gives Berhe the best of both worlds; she is able to look from the cheer perspective as well as a common perspective, in terms of connecting and bonding with cheerleaders. 

“I like my role a lot, because I [get to see] two sides of things, [which helped me get] closer to the underclassmen and people whom I would not have seen myself talking to or having any sort of interest or contact with, and now these are some of my closest friends,” Berhe said.

The cheer team placed second in the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) High School Nationals in downtown Dallas on Jan. 21-22. Even though Berhe did not perform with the team, she was encouraging and invested in their practice, and ensured that they were putting in their best effort.

“She just made sure we kept being positive and that we were staying calm and not getting too nervous or focusing too much on one part of the routine,”  sophomore cheerleader Kristin Price said. “She made sure that we were straight all across the board.”

The team had been practicing hard since November for this annual competition, including weekends and other days when there was no school.

“We had this setup where we had to get 30 full-outs, and we had to hit zero,” Berhe said. “Hitting zero means perfecting your whole routine. So we had to do the whole routine 30 times without any mess-ups. It was a lot, but at the end of the day [all the practice] helped so much.”

Follow @CHSCampusNews on Twitter.