HoCo Unite: Bears football, band and cheer build bonds during annual joint practice

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — School doesn’t start back for another couple of weeks, but the students of Houston County High School are still hard at work.

We all know football, band and cheer doesn’t stop when school does, and they have plenty of activities and practices throughout the summer. Though, usually, all of those are separate.

Well, last Tuesday the three programs decided to join forces and hold a combined practice.

“Last year when we got here we felt like with a strong 200 member band we need their support and they need our support,” head football coach Jeremy Edwards said. “There needs to be a bond between the two to build the culture that’s in our school. So we felt doing stuff like this kind of shows our support to them and their support to us. It’s just such a pleasure to be a part of such a school that has a great culture.”

The practice consisted of about an hour of mixed activities with a handful from each program.

It kicked off with football, which had four stations where band and cheer members got five minutes before moving on to the next.

The football players enthusiastically coached the others through the drills, and everyone seemed to enjoy the tackling dummies the most.

After their allotted time was up, everyone moved to the center of the practice field where band members taught the others how to hold instruments, march and do a few movement exercises.

The cheer squad took the third segment and showed everyone how to do a couple of cheers and make a tower.

The mass of students split up into groups and up came the towers. Some were brave enough to go up a second or even a third time — others not so much.

After that, the three programs went their separate ways to continue their work before school starts.

This practice served almost as a final hoorah before gearing up for school in a couple of weeks, vacation almost over.

“You get your two dead weeks, so you get time to be with family and vacation,” Edwards said. “The kids have worked really hard in June and then already through July. We’ll wrap it up this week and then we’ll get into our acclamation period and then get rolling on the routine of the season.”

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