Senior Athlete Spotlight: Shamonique Atwater

Sham’s Heart Beats In Eight Counts

by, Amber Moses

A good cheerleader is focused, hard-working, tough, fit determined and team-oriented. As an athlete, you should want to be on a team where you can thrive. You also need to be on a team that you are willing to commit to, since you will be expected to take your role on the team seriously. You’ll have more fun and do better on a team that fits your needs and personality. This athlete I’ve known for years now, show all these qualities and many more: Shamonique Atwater.

I’ve known Senior, Shamonique Atwater since our Freshman year in high school, I’ve watched her maintain cheering for many many teams in our area. Current as a student Athlete she is a varsity cheerleader for our school and unfortunately her cheer career is coming to an end.

Shamonique is an outstanding cheerleader and loves both of her current and former teams so much, actually, all 7 of her teams that she has been on since she was 7 years old. She’s cheered for Pop Warner, Elementary, Spring Leagues, High School Varsity (Basketball and Football), and Allstar teams. Leaving each team Sham felt devastated moving on and meeting new teammates however, she got used to it, due to the different experiences she encountered. Amongst all the teams she cheered for, she has won plentiful Nation Championships with each team and is soon to go to a competition in May with our University High School Varsity Cheerleaders.

I'm truly convinced that Sham will further her cheer career in college. So I asked her, “Will you be cheering at your intended college or looking at colleges specifically for cheer?” This was her response:

“No, absolutely not! Of all my years off cheering in high school, it was really hard to manage, so I don’t think I will be cheering in college. It REALLY took over my life. I started working during my junior year...it did not work out. At the time, I was cheering for 2 teams and it interfered a lot. I had to leave practice early to get to work on time, or take off work for competition on the weekends or for basketball games during the weekdays. Trying to manage that in college, I think that will be nearly impossible, not impossible, but hard to manage. Maybe I will try to cheer in college after my Freshman year. Also, I’ve mainly been looking forward to HBCUs to cheer but that contradicts my location of my school choices because I do not want to go out of state. The only HBCU I’m truly interested in is Lincoln University for cheer. I love love love their cheer team.”

Her favorite thing about cheerleading is her bows. But, Sham feels guilty about wanting them. She feels like she's breaking her mom’s pockets buying her bows at every competition. Every bow she buys are put on her favorite cheer bag. But her bows make her feel complete. Sham takes her time arranging the bows on her bag. She says it takes a long time because it has to “look right” on her bag. Every time she wears that bag, I know there is a basketball game that day.

Sham after winning 1st at a National
Competition in Virgining in 2017

On the other hand, her least favorite thing about cheer is when her teammates fool around at practice. During practice, Sham like to get things done and do it correctly. As Sham say, “1 and done!” Practice makes perfect but she believes doing things over and over again is useless because you only have one time to do it at competition or a game-day performance. Once you go out to perform, that is it, you only have 1 chance to show the judges and crowd what your team is capable of.

As her season is coming to an end, we discussed what she will dearly miss as being a cheerleader:

“I’ll really miss how I would be competing and I’d see my mom chanting my name from the side of the mat and then seeing my coach shouting, “Tightttt! Squeeeeze! LET’S GO Y’ALL!” The encouragement from the side of the mat gets me excited and influences me to give my all on the mat. I will miss it the most because I know my mom loves cheer just as much as I do and she told me once that sometimes she feel like hopping on the mat and dance with me at the end of the routine

Sham is nearly devastated that she may no longer be cheering anymore. Hopefully she makes her mind up soon. It was exciting watching her transition from team to team with the same enthusiastic energy for each team she participated on. Advice from Sham to student athletes:

“Learn to manage your time between school and your athletic activity. You’re a student athlete, a student before you’re an athlete, so be sure to maintain outstanding academic records before trying to perform with your team anywhere.”

Thank you Sham for your patience, time, and honesty. Best of luck to you in college!