001What is up everybody? Finn Moore Edwardin up here today. Welcome back to the Clear Water Sports Talk podcast. Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. We're coming for you. Today we got a special edition, another interview. Today we got cheerleaders. We have >> Ashlin Fay Bach and Presley Katherine Rigggins. >> Today we're going to be talking about a little bit of a cheer and um about their senior roles this year and um just kind of how long they've been doing it for which is our first question today. Ashton Fbok, how long have you been doing cheer and why cheer over it or anything else? >> I've been cheering since fourth grade, I think. Either fourth or fifth grade. Um, I definitely wanted to cheer because it was kind of like what you saw in the high school like movies
002and the stereotypes and the pretty girls. So, obviously that's what I wanted to be and do. And surprisingly enough, I ended up liking it. >> Um, personally, I've been cheering. I was cheering in third grade, quit, and then started again in seventh grade. I don't know if you can count the third grade, but I started in seventh grade. And I just I chose it because I loved seeing how much they like enjoyed being around each other and their just like I loved the uniforms, loved the performances, loved everything about it, the stunting, cheers, and all that. Uh, well, speaking of the uniforms, what what would your guys' favorite uniforms be you've ever worn throughout like every year you've done it? >> I'd definitely say our new Columbia blue clear water uniform is my favorite. It's
003really uncomfortable, but it looks super good and like clean. >> I'd have to agree with that. I really love the way that it looks and I love how everyone looks like all together. I just love it. Okay. It's so different from what >> our uniforms usually look like. >> Mhm. >> Um, well, like what's your I don't I don't really know much about cheer and like positions and where you're supposed to be placed at, but like what what is your position per se on the cheer squad? >> Like stunting or like captain rules. >> Well, stunting and then both. >> So, I am a flyer. I've I've tried to base, tried to back spot a little bit because fun to try other things, but I'm teeny so never ended up happening. And then um there
004are three captains. I am the stunt captain and then I'm the cheer captain. So I take over the cheers and I usually call the cheers, find new cheers for us to learn and just provide us with new cheers. And my position when stunting is a back spot. I was a flyer for a while and then I just got like really tall. I hit a growth spurt like freshman year and I was like, whoa, I can't do that anymore. But I really enjoy backspotting. It's definitely been my favorite. >> Stunting is definitely like it's a huge plays a huge role in our performances and um it's just really like so many fun things go on like so many little tiny like jokes and stunts we get to do. And honestly, it just like shows how cohesive
005we are as a team whenever we stunt and whenever we are able to accomplish like big performances and show off like what we can really do. But yeah, as my role of stunt captain, I pretty much find stunts to do, come up with counts a lot and make sure that everyone is working well together and if they have questions, I can tell them like what's going on or like you know. Um you talk about performing um rally in the valley. That would be Clear Water's first time competing um in cheer. Um how did that go? And kind of tell us like kind of that like how that day went for you. Um and I mean I do know well you guys got uh the highest right the highest >> reward. I don't know how what
006they call it but >> Superior. You guys got superior. Uh so kind of how how did that day go? Like what was the day in the life of that one? >> Um definitely woke up very nervous. I mean, first time in Clear Water history like doing anything like that. So, being getting to be a part of it was just like nerve-wracking, but it was so much fun. Just like waking up knowing that you're going to do something big and be a part of history like really it was really fun. But um yeah, I just like I really just think that it was a new experience and just something fun to learn and I hope something that they continue on >> like throughout the rest of the cheer >> career at Clear Water. >> Mhm. Um
007definitely since it was something we've never done before, there were a lot of unknowns and like hills to get over um regarding just like the flow of the performance and we didn't know that we were supposed to do a cheer right before it. So we got counted off for that. But >> um yeah, I'd say it went well. There's obviously a lot of nerves that come with performing in front of people, but yeah, it went good and I'm excited to see what they can do in the future. >> Mhm. It was definitely more of a mental like challenge against our own team. So like we we're competing against ourselves like to be the best that we can be versus against other people to earn our highest rating. >> Yeah. Uh I was there firstand uh
008supporting my girlfriend and it was pretty great to watch. Um honestly pretty entertaining. Uh I enjoyed it. I think you guys did really well and definitely think you earned that uh superior. Um >> thank you. and uh being seniors um and doing cheer for a long time and enjoying it and being in that captain leader role like is there any chance you'll be doing it in the future or have you kind of closed that chapter of cheer after this season? >> Me personally, I really would love to cheer in college. I'm definitely keeping my options open right now, but it's not I'm not like definite on where I want to go. But if it's something that I can do in the future, I would love to continue doing it. >> Um, I definitely looked and
009did as much as I could to continue in college and like chitchated with coaches and schools and went to a clinic and eventually got offered a spot um at Witchaw State. And then I did a lot of self-reflecting and realized that I think I am ready to leave it in my past. I mean, I'm still coaching cheer and tumbling, so it'll be I'll still have that aspect, but I think for my future and what's best for me, like going into the medical field and everything, it's best to leave it in high school, which is totally like I'm totally okay with it, but obviously it's a little weird because it's something that's been in my life for so long. So, >> what what did it kind of take to make that decision? >> Um, it was
010definitely hard. I like didn't really understand why I had I was starting to like lose drive like to go to tumble and stunt and just like put in the work for it. But um I think it was definitely like my mental health played like a big role in like finally deciding that I think I'll be better off without it. But it was super weird and I I had to kind of like slip away from um cheer and like take time for myself which is something that I've never done before. I've always been super busy with cheer and it's always been like right there for me. So >> um what is like for doing it for so long? You've probably had many different memories whether it was at cheer camp or just being there at Great
011Lodge or like kind of even during a performance or before a football game or before a basketball game during it like what's kind of when you think about cheer what's kind of a moment you look back to that kind of makes you happy for choosing to do cheer like what's the moment that >> something I definitely look back at is definitely cheer camp whether it was at Griffith Lodge my first one is at Baker so that was a like a different experience being like being in the dorm rooms and stuff like that. Um, but Grey Wolf Lodge also came with the water park. So, the water slides, everything about it. My favorite thing has been like just and this is going to sound so bad, but we were like dumping water like on kids, but
012like and yeah, it was it was so much fun though. Like just being around like all the cheerleaders and the environment has been so much fun. Um, and especially doing like I don't know if you want to like consider a sport, but like working in a team and like with other teams has introduced like friendships outside of just Clear Water. And I'd say that's like something that I'd highlight when I go back and think on my cheer cheer experience. Excuse me. Um, yeah, I met one of my best friends cheering and yeah, I just it's really it's a really cool thing. And I definitely say like stunting too so many inside jokes that come up that no one else would understand. You just have to be there. So, >> um, and speaking of like the
013friends and stuff, I see I've been I played football for a long time and whatnot in basketball and I've seen like how cheerleaders interact and I think it's just such a tightknit family because literally just walk over there or you walk over there and you'll just introduce yourselves just like um and become friends whether like whether you don't like the other team or not. It's just like >> it's cheer compared to like a football game or something. We're all there to support like our team and like we're all there for the same reason to have fun, to provide spirit and I think it really is like something that brings all cheerleaders together. Like the world genuinely does like need cheerleaders. >> Yeah, for sure. >> Um, speaking of like providing spirit and cheer, what what
014would you say is your favorite cheer to perform? >> Personally, I think my favorite is go team fight. I think it's one that really gets the crowd involved and I think that I mean I see a lot of people start yelling it with us. So it just makes me happy knowing that people also enjoy something that I enjoy. >> Mhm. Um this one's a relatively new one. I think we started doing it either last year or this year. Like last year. Yeah, >> last year. Um, and it would be stand up be proud because it's just so fun and a lot of the cheers are very like repetitive in your motions and this one's just so unique. >> Um, doing cheer for a long time and uh maybe doing different aspects of cheer whether it
015was tumbling or stunting or back spotting. Um, and like you said, you kind of looked up to people and that's kind of why you wanted to even start cheer in the first place. who is like a specific person or like specific people that you did look up to? >> Okay. Yeah. So, I um met one of my coaches and his little brother through one of my best friends that I grew up with in daycare and then I found out that they both cheered in college and they're the type of guys who can throw you up and catch your feet and just hold you in the air. So, I really was like super interested in learning how to do that. And that helped me so much in like becoming a better flyer and just like becoming
016more knowledgeable on like how it works and how I can help other people to be to get to the best of their abilities. Yeah. So, um Nathan Stoya and his little brother Lewis are definitely people I look up to a ton. Someone I definitely look up to was L. Bernson. Whenever I was a freshman, she was a junior. She helped me realize that like even like in cheer there's so much seriousness. It's okay to have fun. It's okay to like let loose, have fun, do like everything that you can do in cheer and be serious, but also like have the silly aspect of it. And I think we really bonded and she was definitely like someone who took like an upper classman who took an underassman like under her wing, you know. And even like
017the seniors when we were freshman played a huge role too >> for sure >> like Brooklyn um Kyle say Opill like just all of them >> super encouraging kind of just took you took you in and made sure everything >> they definitely helped me with my confidence as well like they really helped with that part. >> Do you kind of model uh how you um captain the team now and like lead the team now kind of after them? Um, of course, whenever you have leadership roles, there's things you learn along the way. So, I wouldn't say that there there's like a perfect captain out there or anything. So, you make mistakes and that's how you learn. And so, there were things that they did that I was like, "Oh, I think I'm going to do
018this differently." So, I definitely took from that experience seeing them being captain roles and kind of morph into my own way of leading the team. Definitely being a leader came with like having to like be serious every once in a while, but then also having to >> not like you can also be like have fun and stuff like that. >> There's just a lot of um there's a lot that comes with it. A lot of um what's the word for it? >> I don't know. Anyways, um, wow, words are really hard. >> It's okay. >> Yeah, >> I just really enjoyed building relationships with everyone on the team this year. It was really fun. >> Yeah, it was really fun. Um, and definitely like learning how I work with Presley and just how we're able
019to get um, our ideas and like our critiques out there in the best way possible to benefit our team was hard, but it was also like so fun to just be able to work with her, too. >> Very It was so much fun. >> Yeah. >> And I and I can assume that the coaches held you accountable for that as well. >> Oh, for sure. Yes. >> Yeah. Who are our coaches? >> Shannon and Lindsay. >> Yes. >> You have a quick funny story about one of them. >> I do have a quick funny story about both of them. Actually, this was this happened more occasionally. Like it wasn't just one time. Like we love them, but like >> love them so much. >> So we um we cheered on Halloween. That was our last
020football game of this season. And um we had a routine like a fun Halloween routine that we did and it was the day of that we were doing it and we were in the gym. Shannon and Lindsay were sitting in the bleachers and after we had just done it full out, they told us that it looked terrible. >> They did. I remember that. >> They told us it looked terrible and we were like, "Well, what do we do?" And they were like, "I don't know. It just doesn't look good. But we definitely we pulled through. It ended up being super fun and well complimented. So >> yeah. Yeah. >> Is that a funny story you probably agree with her on? >> Yeah, I'd have to agree with that. It was it was great. >> Yeah.
021They've always had us in their best interest. >> Well, sounds like a funny group of coaches and a great group of coaches that you could definitely look up to. And sounds like a great team led by you two. And um people definitely probably appreciate you for helping their >> I'd hope so. I hope so. probably definitely appreciate you helping their daughters throughout these few years and whatnot and making the best shooters they can be. So, thank you for that and um good luck in all your future endeavors and thank you guys for coming on. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Catch you all on the next sports talk.