Senior back spot Kizzie Citty brings spirit to Harding cheer.<\/p>\n
For senior Kizzie Citty, being a member of the cheerleading team was something that had always piqued her interest. Her family has strong ties to both Harding cheerleading and football, so it was something she had enjoyed participating in prior to her college career. In the beginning of her senior year in 2019, Citty decided to join the Harding cheerleading team.
\nCoach Kellee Blickenstaff said most women join the cheerleading team during their freshman or sophomore year, but it\u2019s very rare for someone to join as a senior. Blickenstaff said she knew Citty was a talented cheerleader from seeing her cheer in junior high and high school.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve regretted not cheering since freshman year, and I have always wished I had, but I always ended up deciding not to try out,\u201d Citty said. \u201cThis year it just worked out perfectly.\u201d
\nFor many women, the cheerleading team is a source of community \u2014 a community rooted in a sport each member is passionate about. Junior Rachel Frost, one of the cheerleading team\u2019s captains, described the immense impact the team has had on her college experience.
\n\u201cI love encouraging people and building others up, and I also love cheerleading,\u201d Frost said. \u201cAnd so, to me, there\u2019s no better way to do that than combining those and cheering on the Bisons.\u201d
\nCitty said she felt similarly, and when she was given the opportunity to join the team, she gave it a try. Her thoughts were very positive about the camaraderie of her new teammates.
\n\u201cThey\u2019ve just completely welcomed me and included me,\u201d Citty said.
\nShe said joining as a senior created an interesting dynamic because it made her feel like one of the younger members, even though she was well acclimated to all other aspects of college. However, this has not stopped her from giving her best effort and enjoying the time she has had.
\n\u201cKizzie has been so fun to have on the team,\u201d junior Carson Arnett said. \u201cShe is so quick to learn and pick up new skills, and she keeps a good attitude while doing it.\u201d
\nCitty was pleased with her decision to join the team and felt it added to her college experience. She said she was thankful for the opportunity to participate in her final year.
\n\u201cI have loved to cheer since I was little, so getting to do it one last time in college has been something I\u2019ve really cherished,\u201d Citty said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senior back spot Kizzie Citty brings spirit to Harding cheer. For senior Kizzie Citty, being a member of the cheerleading team was something that had always piqued her interest. Her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15086,"featured_media":14041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}