SUHS Rizal 1999-2000

the cheering legacy

Perhaps the greatest legacy SUHS Batch 2000 has left in our Alma Mater is our ability to come together and perform magnificently as a team. We will always be known for our unity and fighting spirit, which made us succeed no matter what the odds. These can be best shown in our performances not only during cheering competitions, but also before and after the event. We worked hard for every contest, and we deserved the victories, and we always made sure that everyone is part of the team, as we always celebrated our achievements together, with victory parties. When you think of cheering in the high school level, probably the most awaited and the most exciting activity of the year, you might as well think of SUHS Batch 2000. Our contributions to the evolution of cheering presentations may not be that big, but they were enough to make cheering what it is today. In our four years in Silliman University High School, we have participated in seven cheering contests. We fared well in all of them, winning 1st Place in four of those, and 2nd Place in the other three. Although we may be known to be rebellious at times (especially to our advisers), there was something in us, or within us, that makes us succeed. Our desire to win is incredible, and our performance is even better. We had been together in all those times, in both the ups and downs. The same people worked on the things they’re good at, every year – Loren, with our hand movements, our t-shirt designs by Kim, Joshua and Remir with our introductions, Megan, Charlie, and Nicing with our creative concepts, the leadership of Bruce, and our very capable squad leader, Mary Magno, and lots more. They were there each year to lead us. It was probably the first time in SUHS history that someone had been the squad leader of a team for four consecutive years. It was very simple – Why would we have another squad leader when Mary, who was the really the best, is available? Since the rules state that a person who has won the Best Squad Leader award is automatically disqualified from being a squad leader the next year, it was very ironic and beneficial for us, that she didn’t win the award until our senior year. This is not to say that she wasn’t good enough, of course, she deserved to have won it every year, but some things just can’t be ezplained. Let us relive those cheering memories. As freshmen, the 1996 inter-level cheering contest was somewhat like an eye-opener. Unlike today’s freshmen, we didn’t experience cheering competitions in Silliman University Elementary School, as well as most other elementary schools. Although we knew that we didn’t stand a chance against the higher year levels, we never quit. Our songs and yells ranged from corny ones, like the “With a go, with a rah, with a sisbumbah,” to the more matured ones, like “We Want Challenge.” We also had energy-boosting cheers like “Panahon Na Para Magsaya” and “Umgawâ,” as well as humorous crowd-pleasers like “Lagi Nalang Tayong Nag-Aaway” ang “Punta Kayo Bundok.” We also featured some unique actions in “Nobody Can Beat Us, Freshmen,” where we created a wave-like collective action, and “We Wanna Be With You,” were one part included our heads facing sideways as an action. Both drew numerous cheers from the audience, especially considering that we were still 1st year high school students. Our introduction was quite meaningful, and it has become a trademark of our batch to have very insightful speeches that hit the theme as introductions. Our cheering attire was very simply – the typical maong pants and our Freshmen t-shirt, which depicted a silhouette of a man carrying a torch embossed over a Silliman portal at the front, while the theme was at the back. We had no props, and we only had green paint on the palms of our hands to highlight our actions. Many, which included us, didn’t expect ourselves to compete against the older, and more experienced year levels, but we did. We wound up second place! That contest was basically a glimpse of what was to come in the years to pass by. 1997 was quite different. As sophomores, we were now more experienced and have become more matured, especially with the choice of our songs and yells (Batch 2000 always made it a point that each of our cheers had a good message). Our actions became more complicated. Our brand new songs and yells – “Freeze,” “Teams,” “Are You Tough,” “We’ve Got the Looks,” and “Eeyeho,” had very unique beats and complex actions that were never seen before. It seemed to be the beginning of a new cheering era, when hand movements became more intricate, and the constant improvement of cheering concepts, ideas, and gimmicks were common. Our other songs and yells included some rhythmic beats in “The Sophies team is going to win,” and “We, doing our best to Win…” We also had some yells from our Freshman year that we carried on, like “Panahon Na Para Magsaya,” “Umgawa,” and “Punta Kayo Bundok,” because of the great response from the audience. Each member of the cheering squad wore black pants and our yellow sophomore t-shirt. The design was very appropriate for the theme, and so we won the Best T-shirt Design. We had the adidas-based three stripes at the right shoulder part of our shirt, to represent the Via, Veritas, Vita (I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life) motto of Silliman University. But in reality, it was also just for style. We had another new ingenious gimmick. We painted our forearms with black and yellow, making us look like bees. Although it didn’t help that much in emphasizing our hand movements, the thought of doing so, proved the creativity of our batch. The only downside this year was the absence of visible props (the only props we had were little flaglets we waved in the “Every Color Of The Youth” song, that can hardly be noticed). It was, in my opinion, the missing part of the puzzle. Our sophomore year also showed our first case of slight conflicts with our teachers. It was the day before the cheering contest and we were practicing at the grandstand in the SU Ballfield. It was only then that we had really concentrated and started rehearsing the actions for our introduction. Remir volunteered to teach us the right pronunciation and timing for each word and phrase. (Remember the “diction” incident?) We couldn’t seem to get it right. Our advisers became frustrated over our inability to keep focused on what we were doing, and they walked-out from the practice. They just left us alone with only less than a day towards the big event. That incident made us more determined to do our best, to prove that we could accomplish anything with or without them. We had a little talk among ourselves and it somehow kept us going with our practice. That following dawn, about 5 in the morning, we had our last practice at the Luce Auditorium lobby. We decided to hold that practice by ourselves and although one teacher was there (she knew of that practice from her daughter who was one of the squad members), she had nothing to do with it, and not a single word was spoken between us and her. The cheering contest that afternoon was a success. The crowd was behind us as we won 2nd Place for the second straight year. There were rumors that we had actually won the contest, and that the Seniors were just given a chance because we made them the winners (When the fourth and third place winners were already announced, the emcee asked everyone who deserved to be the champions, and we innocently pointed towards the direction of where the Seniors were, as we were really not expecting to win.) I really don’t know how true those rumors are but I’m very certain, and so did most of the audience, that we deserved to win. To really prove how good our cheers was that year, hear this: The Seniors, who represented SUHS in the All-University cheering contest, inserted at least three (“Freeze,” “Teams,” and “Eeyeho”) of our songs and yells into theirs, and wound up 3rd Place. If more of our cheers were copied, they would have probably made it all the way to the top, and if the Sophies had done it, it would have been a certainty that SUHS would become the All-University Champs. But I guess, that has to wait one more year. Much expectation was seen at the start of our Junior year. We had now been second for the past two years and have become the favorites to win the cheering championship. The only hurdle for us to jump over is the SUHS Batch 1999, who has become our rivals for the past few years. Ever since our elementary years, we have beaten them – the Intramurals in elementary, and both the Intrams and the cheering contests for the last couple of years in high school. There’s no other better way to finish-off a rivalry (they would be leaving SUHS and it was the last year that we could stage another contest between us) than to finally win it all! First thing’s first, the cheering contest. We were now third year students, and we now have become more independent and even more matured. We made sure that we didn’t commit the same mistake, which we had last year – the absence of highly visible props. Planning was made on what kind of props to make. We were now ready to spend, and work, day and night. Finally, it was decided, through a concept from our Math teacher, who was probably the most helpful adviser that time, that we would build a backdrop of a sun, which would rise at the back of the squad. Since it was the centenary of our country’s independence, the idea was to depict a representation of the Philippine Flag with the sun, the three stars, and the red and blue colors. Someone suggested chicken wire to be the framework of the sun, and styrofoam as the material to be used for the sun. We started working on it about two and a half weeks before the scheduled cheering date. We all knew what we were doing, except for our teachers, who had no idea. They just left all the responsibilities among us, as they had some more important things to handle (like a theater play, perhaps?) A very devoted group of students, with the help of the rest of the whole third year students, worked day and night for the props. They would ultimately be known as the “squaps,” because most were also part of the squad. They bought all the needed materials and brought them to our headquarters, the Monares home in Mango Avenue. It was there where we shaped and painted the sun. We outlined the sun’s semi-circle and rays with gold sequins. We also had a flag-like prop, which will be used for the finale, with three strips of cloth (blue, red, and white) sewed together and had placed three yellow stars. The framework of the sun was assembled in another place. We used chicken wire and bamboos. We were financially short, but with the help of some donations by the students (and even one helpful teacher,) we were able to get what we needed. We sweated it out all day and all night. We sacrificed putting our studies aside, just for the sake of the Juniors cheering team. Meanwhile, we also had a strict screening for the appropriate cheers and yells to include in our line-up. We chose yells and songs that deliver a message to the audience, especially about our country. We also had more precise hand movements and actions. We carried some of our Sophies’ cheers like “Freeze,” “Teams,” “Are You Tough?” “Eeyeho,” and added some more with the same caliber, like “Alright Stop,” “J-U-N-I-O-R-S,” and “It’s Hot.” We also had nationalistic Filipino songs like “K.K.K.,” “Ang Awit Ng Kabataan,” and “Sa Ating Kamay Nakasalalay.” The newest gimmick is the finale, where we had another speech backgrounded with a song (since then, most teams everywhere in Dumaguete also had similar endings.) We chose the song “Handog Ng Pilipino Sa Mundo,” and honored our national heroes in our final speech. Another gimmick was the wave, which was created by Casey, at the beginning of our presentation. It was a collective action from the first person below to the last one above the squad, which impressed a lot of people (another action which is now in every school in the city.) The cheerleaders also had some ideas of their own, they had the word “Juniors” painted on the back of their bloomers, for the purpose of entertaining the audience. Finally, the parts of the sun were brought to the place were the framework was, and we put them together by sewing them with nylon. We got backaches trying to put the sun together, as we knelt down the floor (some even were completely lying down) while facing up to sew the sun from underneath. Wounds became common to us. We didn’t have enough sleep, as most of us worked until midnight. The eve before the cheering contest was spent finishing our props. Aside from the sun, and the flag-like piece of cloth, we also added the letters J-U-N-I-O-R-S attached to long bamboos as props when we spell the word “Juniors” in one of the yells. The last work was the “100” insignia in the Philippine Kalayaan Logo. We finally had all the work done at past 1 in the morning (and we still had our final rehearsal at 4 a.m.,) except for an important one. We haven’t practiced how to raise the sun up yet. It was quite heavy and we had problems in deciding how to lift it up. We came up with the idea of using a long rope to pull it up from the upper rooms at both sides of the gymnasium. We practiced raising the sun the next morning, as many male batchmates carried it to the gym at about 5:30 a.m. (to be continued…)