WXXV Student Athlete of the Week: Ocean Springs Cheerleader Camryn Carter
It’s shaping up to be a pretty busy week for Ocean Springs cheerleader Camryn Carter, who is less than a week away from signing the National Letter of Intent of her dreams with LSU.
Being too young to be on the Ocean Springs cheer team didn’t stop Camryn Carter from finding her calling.
From competitive cheer to making her middle school squad and finally being a four-year varsity cheerleader for the Greyhounds, Carter is now living out that calling and it fits her personality perfectly. “I love cheering people on and making sure that I can help people as much as I can and I’ve just always been that type of person, and this is like the perfect way to be able to show it and also do what I love while cheering, and it feels so good especially when they win, I’m like ‘wow they definitely deserved it’ and I’m glad that we can be there for them and cheer them on because I know it’s definitely needed, always to have somebody cheer for you… it always helps.”
But sometimes, people forget that even cheerleaders need some encouragement, too. “Cheer is honestly mostly mental. It is very difficult and you can get mental blocks and there can be some days where you just don’t want to come in, but really the atmosphere and the girls have really helped with that and definitely it can be hard mentally, but they’re really good at keeping us tough and making sure that we’re happy and have a good mindset.”
Cheerleaders are most visible on high school football Fridays, but that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what the sport entails.
Just like every other sport, they put their everything into practice when no one is watching in hopes of earning their very own rings and state championship title. They do this all year long.
This season, the OS cheer team did exactly that and it put the ‘cheery’ on top for Carter. “It literally put the cherry on top of my senior year. We’ve been wanting this so bad since my freshman year… just getting so close to winning and finally getting it. It really added to my passion for the sport and it helped me want to continue onto it and getting that feeling was like no other and I was like I can’t let go. It’s just too good.”
Luckily for Carter, she doesn’t have to give up her passion just yet. After a long two days of tryouts in the boot, Carter saw her name on the LSU co-ed cheerleading list and it changed her life forever. “They told us to go to lunch and come back and then the final list would be posted on the door and they had everyone’s name listed and it was super exciting and it was just an unreal feeling… still doesn’t feel real.”
From Greyhound Stadium to Death Valley, Carter is getting the chance to live out her dreams in one of the nation’s best game day atmospheres. “I just cannot wait. That was my main thing when I was thinking about college cheer. I really want that game day experience and I feel like nothing gets better than LSU game day like seriously. I just can’t wait. The crowd will be a lot bigger than Ocean Springs High School, but I just can’t wait because I love the feeling of the crowd and the cheering and this is my passion, it makes me happy. It’s been my everything for so long and then I’m just so excited to be able to continue it because I’m so passionate about it and I just love it so much.”
