SIDNEY LANIER HIGH SCHOOL’S
April 15, 2018 Special Edition
The Blue & White
Inside this issue: Poets on 2 YouTube: Vlogs, Vocals, Victims
First Male Cheer Captain Brings It By Makaylah Harris
For the 2018-2019 academic year, Lanier will make history as it presents its first male cheer captain: Ja’Vonde Robinson.
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This is his second try for captain, as all candidates are required to submit an essay and undergo an interview. Ja’Vonde is the first male cheerleader to make captain. In recent years, alumnus Patrick Pride served as co-captain for 2013 and 2014.
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Alexis Dulaney dances, does office duties
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Ja’Vonde first started cheering his sophomore year of high school. He describes his first year as being shy and self-effacing. But through the years he came out his shell and started expressing himself more.
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Although being a male on the cheer team can become hectic with all the expectations and criticism, Ja’Vonde still chooses to look past the ignorance.
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Leading the squad: Ja’Vonde Robinson is the 2018-2019 cheer captain. Contributed photo
“At first I was terrified of what people would say,” he recalls, “but throughout the time I developed higher self-esteem”. Ja’Vonde is a role model for many boys who want to cheer or who are scared to be themselves. His advice to people who are similar to him is: “Be yourself and you're not here to please nobody on earth but God so just live your own life because you are not living it for anybody else”. Before cheering Ja’vonde liked to dance. He first started dancing at the age of three. At the age of seven, he first watched the movie, “Bring It On,” which tells the story of what it is like to be a cheerleader trying to make a squad and win a championship. And that’s when he made up his mind that he wanted to cheer. Ja’Vonde’s main focus behind cheering is inspiring others and being a leader. He cheers with ambition and loves what he does. “He’s a role model because through all of the obstacles he comes out on top every time , and he is very ambitious, energetic, and amiable,” says a tudent who asked not to identified. “Everyone deserves a person like him that they can look up to.”
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Ja'Vonde teaches those who come in contact with him is to hold your head up high and to handle whatever difficulties you face gracefully. "You have to go into a situation with an open-mind,” he says, “and have faith so at the end you will conquer.”
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