In any sport, bouncing back from an injury is tough. Having hurt her ankle last year in a stunt accident, Emma Carter has shown that someone overcome adversity and come back better than ever.
“It was really hard for her last year because she really wanted to be on that mat,” junior Lily Hass said.” After a while she got over it and she was just really happy to come back so quickly.”
For Carter it was just a minor setback but it may have given her unexpected relationships with people on the team.
“It was so sad last year with her ankle, but I got to hangout with her on the sidelines so we became super close,” assistant cheer coach Reyne Armbrust said.
Creating relationships does a lot for a team in order to bond and communicate any problems that come up. Teammates can create a safe space to talk or just have a shoulder to lean on in times of weariness.
“She always wants to help everyone when they’re struggling,” Hass said. “she wants to help the coaches even and she advocates for everyone.”
Carter has a very important role on the team as she is a captain. As a captain she has to be able to talk to everyone, problem solve, and know little pieces of information that make the cheerleading team work.
“She plays a huge role,” sophomore Violet Kunz said. “she’s always in the front with a megaphone so that helps us be louder and have more volume.”
While performing on the mat Carter calls out cheers with the megaphone to the audience and to her own team.
“She definitely is not too hard on us,” Kunz said. “when she corrects you, it is very positive and never in a rude way.”
Communicating without being rude is a great quality trait to have as it develops a team or person rather than tearing them down. That quality is one of a good leader.
“In the last four years I have definitely seen her confidence grow as she’s gotten older and she’s just become a true leader,” Armbrust said.
Carter has definitely taken on a leadership role this year, being a senior and a captain, but also in competitions. When the judges call out a cheer the cheerleaders have to interpret if the call is an offensive or defensive call and react accordingly to do the appropriate cheer.
“Emma had the megaphone and we relied on her to listen for the call and call it in the megaphone,” Armbrust said.
The amount of confidence and knowledge needed for this task is high, but Carter had executed it well and even if a problem arose she handled it.
“Emma is really good at problem solving so she can take any situation and find the truth in it and totally calm everybody down,” Armbrust said.
Carter has to think of her own movements and calls, but as a leader she still looks out for teammates movements and steps on the floor which really shows leadership.
“At state she just put everything out on that mat,” Hass said. “I know she worked hard for 3 years so it was fun seeing her finally be out there.”
In the end winning state and making it past prelims at nationals was a huge accomplishment as a senior captain coming back from such a hard injury.
