According to Google, it is common for freshmen to start off on the JV team and then progress their skills to be on varsity. But for Inel, she rocked the stage and got that spotlight in a heartbeat. The nervous “um’s,” before an answer, the looking around the room after every question was asked, and the glow beam in her eyes as she speaks about the sport she loves more. Inel Chavez Ramos, a junior at West Leyden High school, is proud to share her amazing outbuild in becoming a varsity cheerleader for 3 years now. She is an inspiration to many, as she shares her story and background of what she loves most. Even when routines get tough or school feels overwhelming, Inel finds balance through movement, teamwork and connection. Cheer has become her way to express herself and find peace in the chaos of her high school life. “Honestly, I feel like cheering is like a break from school. So it’s not like it comes in the way it kind of benefits me more because it just gets my mind out of, like, all that stress, and then I’m here with all my friends.” she claims. Living all her life around her cheer family, Inel speak that “ it was, more of a family tradition. I guess, like all of my siblings did cheer, and I also followed along, and all of my or the rest of the siblings are also following along.” Inel strongly responds. She shifts the gear and speaks on behold of preparing for competition that is coming up for her team. So she responds “I feel very prepared, like our skill wise has improved over, like, the past years. And I think learning new skills from my previous years has helped me. She proceeds, like this year, because I feel like skills that I learned back when I was a freshman, there were new skills that I’ve never done, but then now I do them, and it’s like they’re easy skills. Like, there’s stuff I just do on command.”However, cheer doesn’t always share their flaws or know what challenges can come with but Inel makes sure to value that everything turns out okay! “I think the hardest part is like mentally being here and mentally pushing yourself to, like, your limits, because there’s some times where you get yourself so much so you’re like, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. And like, you just have to keep pushing for it.” From being a varsity cheerleader to being an ex teen coach for the organization Leyden Bears, Inel claims “It was a little different . You have to learn how to be like a leader, like you have to, like, show them what they’re supposed to be doing. And like, I feel like, here you’re your own person, and you’re focused on yourself. And then over there, it’s like you’re focused on every little girl, and it’s just like, it’s not hard, but it’s just like, you have to, like, figure it out, you know, good.” You see, “This one girl who was struggling with, like facing and like her mentality was just like out of it. And I think I also went through that where I was like, I cannot do this, like, I just physically cannot do it, like, mentally. And I think I talked with her, like one on one, like you can do it. And I think it just connected me to her, because I also went through that, and I just helped her out.” Inel knows the true value and inspiration to being a leader to many young girls, as she is still a teen herself. What an amazing cheerleader! It’s never easy getting on the varsity team being a new freshman, but Inel walked in with confidence and a steady mindset that she fulfilled that award and till this day is still continuing that path. Inel is seen as an inspiration and she wants to remind those that you can start off with no skills and still be the best cheerleader you can be.