(November 26, 2003) Kaila Todd Todd puts a spin on the Tornado cheerleading squad. According to Todd, she spends about two to three hours a day practicing routines and stunts and on Fridays she cheers on the football players rain or shine. This is Todd’s first year as a high school cheerleader, but she has had much previous experience, as she was on the drill team at both Mark Keppel Elementary School and Toll Middle School. Aside from cheerleading, Todd is very interested in acting. She previously took acting classes, and was in last year’s school production of the musical Chicago as Miss Mama Morton. She is putting her acting career on a hold right now, as she is busy juggling school and cheerleading. However, Todd said she would never give up cheerleading, because she has “made a lot of good friends and met many different people.” Cassandra Soo Watching anime, knitting, playing the guitar, drawing, dancing­­ and hanging out with friends and family are among some of Soo’s interests. You must be thinking how does she do it all? Soo enjoys keeping busy. Between school, cheerleading and her many hobbies, she definitely manages to stay active. This is Soo’s third year as a Hoover cheerleader and her second on the Varsity squad. She said she really enjoys cheer and plans on continuing her cheerleading career next year as well. Soo and other members of the squad make up the cheerleading routines, while former cheerleaders assist in the creation of routines. Soo is especially upset about cheerleaders not getting enough respect. “It’s quite annoying when people look upon cheer as a ‘spectator sport,’” she said. “We condition, run and practice as much as other sports…It takes a lot of work to coordinate everything so we look uniform.” She said it angers her when people say that cheerleading is not a “real” sport.