On Thursday, December 8, New Haven High School hosted Silent Night. In this event, the junior varsity and varsity basketball girls were playing, and the cheerleaders cheered silently until the teams got to 10 points. It took until the second period of the JV game before they started calling out the cheers.
Mr. Tucker was asked why he thought the school participates in the Silent Night tradition, and he said it was to get people involved. It makes the crowd wait a while to finally cheer, building all the tension.
When asked how they felt about Silent Night, Ariana Ribera, a middle schooler at NHMS, said, “I think it was a lot of fun. Even though I don’t really watch sports, the girls were interesting to watch. I did like how the cheerleaders were cheering quietly.”
Lexi Oetterer, a cheerleader that was cheering that night, said, “I like how everybody gets so into it. When they don’t cheer until the tenth point, then they go really wild because they’re so excited.”
Kamryn Poe and Vanessa Vallejo are managers for the JV and varsity teams. Kamryn was asked how she felt about the game, and her response was, “It was real intense. The game was nerve-wracking, and I was at the edge of my seat. By the fourth quarter, I knew it was a sure win. Congrats, varsity girls!”
Doug Peirick was asked how thought the girls did, this was his response, “I thought we could have played better on the offensive and defensive end in the 1st half. We did play better in the 2nd and were able to pull away from them. I thought Emma Engelbrecht was our best player on both ends of the court. She had 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 steals.”