Going through a cheerleading season is challenging and many don’t stick with it, but senior Greeley West cheerleader Tori Wells got a full scholarship to Bethel University in Kansas because she was determined to make the best of it.
Growing up, Wells was a gymnast and always had the perception that she hated cheer. She said, “My dad had told me to try it and when I made the team, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. But I still continued.”
When she started in her freshman year, she didn’t think she was going to go anywhere with cheer. But when the college reached out this year, it was a really surreal moment. “When this specific college came at me, it was just kind of ‘they really want me’ sort of thing,” Wells said.
Bethel reached out to her in the middle of August and Wells was pretty hesitant about what to do since it was so early to make a decision. “I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it so quickly, but now I don’t regret it,” Wells explained.
Wells said that some of the challenges that cheerleading has put her through include finding out who she was as a person and trying her best to represent her school. That has continued this season as a senior and the only captain on the team. “I’m representing all the seniors by myself (as a cheerleader) and representing the school in that aspect as well,” Wells said. “(I’m) finding out who (I am), how to take it further, and all together sticking with that mindset.”
Like most high school seniors, Wells is anxious about her new adventure, but she is happy to be taking it because of all the happy memories that are to come. “It’s pretty scary though. High school cheer is all I know and I know it is going to get so much harder in college,” Wells explained.
