DOWNEY — Amongst the athletes who participated in signing day at Warren this past school year, there was a first: Savannah Wright, the bear’s first cheerleader to be actively recruited to the collegiate level.

Wright, 17, will swap out her blue and gold pom-poms for red and yellow when she joins the cheer teams at Arizona Christian University.

In an accomplishment years in the making, Wright was awarded a double-scholarship for both cheerleading and stunt; the latter of which just recently recognized as a sport.

“I’m really proud about that myself because looking back my freshman year when we had our athletic recruitment day at Warren where they had all the athletes on the [signing] table, I realized there was not a single cheerleader up there, and that hurt because I felt like it’s a sport you love, and it’s a sport you appreciate and you know it takes hard work and dedication,” said Wright. “To not see a single person up there, that was the day I knew I was going to work my butt off to make sure I was on that table my senior year, and I did.

“I was the first person to do that, and I’m really proud of myself because I feel like I get to show other girls also at Warren that it’s possible to do what you love, and still continue to do it through your college time.”

What might be surprising, however, is that Wright had no intention of trying out for the Warren cheer squad, on account that she didn’t believe she would make it.

“To be honest with you, in middle school I was kind of chubby and wasn’t into makeup, or into self-care like that,” said Wright. “I always thought of that stereotype, like I always thought I wasn’t going to make it because of that cheerleading stereotype.

Nevertheless, Wright was dragged to tryouts by her friend her freshman year. Upon making the team, she knew that cheerleading wasn’t just about aesthetics.

“Making it into JV my freshman year, I was really proud of myself because I knew at that moment that that sport was more than just about how you looked, but more of the community and the skill,” said Wright.

Wright spent her freshman year as part of the JV squad, but quickly found herself on the varsity team the next year. By her junior year, she was varsity captain, remaining so through her senior year.

As captain, Write was required to find the balance between friend and authority figure.

“As a captain, it is very hard because there is that role where you need still to be able to be close with the girls on the team, but also still have that boundary of when they know where they need to listen to you and still have that respect for you as their captain who’s trying to have that middle-ground of making sure everything is flowing and basically being the middle ground between you and your coach,” said Write. “For me personally, it was very hard because I felt like I could never win with the girls. It can be hard to have them know that you still care about them, so because you care about them and you want them to excel at that sport, you also have to make sure that they’re staying on task.”

She says it was her experience before joining Warren’s team, when she spent time in dance and gymnastics, that prepared her for the “higher level of competitive cheerleading.”

During her time as part of the competition team, Warren found success including wins in World Class Cheerleading (WCC) competitions.

When she’s not cheering and stunting at ACU, Wright will be double majoring in political science with a concentration in criminal justice, and business administration with a concentration in marketing.

She’s looking forward to getting to know her new coaches and squad.

“I’m excited because I’m going to have new coaches, who I’ve already met. They’re super nice, and they’re just very encouraging; very loving,” said Wright. “And also, teammates; I’ve met a lot of my teammates already.

“I think as a cheerleader as well, you go through a lot of things behind the scenes that as cheerleaders, going out at the collegiate level, you’re there to support each other and realize that you’re there together, you’re going to go through this together and …being there for each other, all of us together.”

Still, Wright believes that the misconceptions about cheer that almost kept her from the sport still linger amongst others.

“I think even to this day that stereotype still kind of exists, which is still kind of frustrating because I think it discourages a lot of girls from trying out,” said Wright. “In reality I don’t think they realize we are some of the nicest people I feel like on campus, most inclusive.”

She hopes to inspire others to break those glass ceilings.

“I guess I feel this need to prove to everyone that I did deserve this, because I know it’s something hard and a lot of people just kind of brush it off,” said Wright. “I feel like knowing hard it was to do this, I want to prove to everyone that it was something I deserve, and something that I’m good at, and something that other people can do.”

Competitive cheerleader Savannah Wright is breaking barriers