EMERSON MCELROY
IDABEL HIGH SCHOOL
If you listen to Emerson McElroy talk, you might swear that she’s a senior or maybe even a college kid. But this Idabel High dynamo is just a sophomore who is a one-person organizer for the Warrior cheer squad.
“She’s my go-to for choreography, does a lot of our pre-recordings, is a game manager and coordinates all of our cheers, chants and dances,” said cheer coach Prince Ssai who is in her 10th year of coaching cheer but the first as the high school cheer coach.
This organizational and leadership attribute has been a part of McElroy’s DNA for a while.
“I’ve always looked for leadership positions in organizations I’ve been in. I was student council president in eighth grade and was also a cheer captain that year and those things really built my confidence in being a leader,” said Emerson who has already gotten involved in student council and FCCLA at IHS as well as being part of the dance team and the relatively new golf team which she attributes to her dad taking her to the course since was four years old.
McElroy got her start in cheer at a young age with the help of a youth program.
“We have a program here called Cheer Buddies for kids ages pre-k through fifth grade where you get to go cheer with the high school cheer leaders and once I got into that program I decided then and there that I wanted to be an Idabel High cheerleader. And now little girls look up to me and I hope I’m inspiring them to be cheerleaders.”
Emerson is a flyer on the cheer squad that qualified for state last year in the Game Day competition and is looking forward to helping the team get there again this year.
“Last year we went and got to see all the big schools perform ahead of us and it’s given us some good ideas of things we can implement or do better so we can do better at state this year.”
