By Lauren Dante
La’Darius
Rah rah for La’Darious Harris! La’Darius is a spirited junior at Lamar Consolidated High School. As the only male on the cheerleading squad, La’Darius is not afraid to follow his dreams and break any barriers that he comes across with a positive attitude. He brings not only spirit but also genuine enthusiasm to his squad and the school.
La’Darius began cheering in seventh grade for his junior high school. “I saw the cheerleaders at my junior high and knew that I wanted to do that,” said La’Darius. “So, I tried out and have loved the sport ever since.” La’Darius has been on the varsity squad since ninth grade and is the captain of the squad as only a junior. He views cheerleading as his life and plans on pursuing it in the future.
At cheer camp this past summer the squad was very successful. The squad was nominated for the Best Squad award, won three spirit sticks and the Herkie award. La’Darius was able to take captain classes that helped him to assess and improve his leadership skills. Even though La’Darius was the only male cheerleader at camp, he did not let it diminish his spirit. La’Darius’ favorite part of cheer camp is the dances. He is always chosen to learn the advanced dance routines.
For stunting purposes, La’ Darius is the main base or the back spot. He enjoys stunting with his squad and likes to do basket tosses and anything with extensions and full-downs. As a cheerleader, La’Darius performs at the school’s sporting events as well as at pep-rallies. “The thing that I like most about cheerleading is the crowd involvement,” said La’Darius. “The football crowd is always fun and energetic, and in my opinion, football is the best sport to watch.”
The cheer squad has become very active in the community this past year. Just a few weeks ago, the squad was at Bob’s Tacos promoting an upcoming football game. The squad also hosts pep rallies for the local junior high and elementary school to pump up their school spirit and for the kids to enjoy. In the spring, the squad visited senior citizens and played cards and performed songs with them.
Not only is La’Darius a talented cheerleader, he is also a fast runner. He joined the track team to carry on his family tradition and is quite a competitor. His brothers and dad were talented track stars, so La’Darius thought that he would give it a shot. He runs the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 4X1 relay and 4X2 relay. His favorite race is the 200-meter dash because he feels that it is his best race, and he focuses on this race the most during practice. La’Darius has won first and second places in the 200-meter dash at the track meets and first in his relay races at the meets. Although he is a talented runner, La’Darius does not enjoy running. He gets really nervous before the meets, but in the end, he enjoys doing it because he does well at the meets.
In addition to doing well at the track meets, La’Darius also does well in school. He is an Honor Roll student who takes Advanced Placement classes. “My favorite subject is history,” said La’Darius. “I feel like I can connect with history and it is easy to understand.”
For one of his elective classes, La’Darius is taking a journalism course. Through this class, La’Darius discovered his love of journalism. In the future, La’Darius would like to attend Texas A&M and major in journalism. He is interested in becoming a sports reporter because he feels that it would be interesting to meet the players and get their perspective on life outside of their sport. In addition, La’Darius wants the world to recognize cheerleading as a sport. Keep on cheering La’Darius, and we will be cheering you on from the sidelines!