by Dana Branham, editor-in-chief

At the Mini Tiger Cheer Clinic on Saturday, young girls ages 4 through 12 gathered in the gyms, excitedly wearing new maroon T-shirts and flipping around ponytails.

The cheer teams (freshman through varsity), as well as Tina the Tiger–mascot Aly Herrera–were at the school bright and early Saturday morning to greet the “Mini-Tigers” with smiles.

The clinic was organized by age groups and each Mini-Tiger made her way around both gyms by participating in stations led by Consol cheerleaders.

“It gives [the younger girls] a little bit of insight as to what kind of jumps we do, what the expectations are, like motion sharpness and maybe things that they don’t think are a big deal,” cheer coach Marissa Mitchell said. “They learn a lot of technique.”

The stations included motions, where the girls learned different cheer positions such as a “high V,” “right punch” and a “T,” which tell the girls how to position their arms during a cheer. Similarly,  different stations practiced jumps, as well as chants, cheers and tumbling exercises.