Never Say Never...

by MJ Bathan

When I transferred to Rutgers from St. John’s, I was expecting a lot of change, but becoming a cheerleader was never even a thought. That was, until I met Brianna Rhodes. We were introduced to each other by a mutual friend, and we got to know each other very well, close enough to consider each other best friends. I thought it was really cool that she was a cheerleader, and had a lot of respect for her being a student athlete. She mentioned that her team was looking for men for the upcoming season, and I thought, “What do I have to lose?”

MJ Bathan and Bri Rhodes

MJ Bathan and Katie Hartwig

In March 2019, I went to my first practice. I was so nervous that I actually threw up in the bathroom as soon as I got to the RAC with her. She told me that it was okay if I didn’t want to go through with it, but I said I’d already made it this far, so I would give it a try despite being a nervous wreck. I met a number of people, but I only remembered one of them that day — Katie Hartwig. Bri told me about her before, so I felt a little more comfortable at least knowing about someone else. Mike Martinez, one of the assistant coaches, told me that I’d be stunting with Katie. He was extremely nice and welcoming, and he tried to calm my nerves when he saw the look of concern on my face. He told me I would be attempting to get Katie to “hands,” which looked like an impossible task to me. She was very encouraging though, so that helped calm me down even more. After a few tries, I was starting to get the hang of it, and I surprised myself that I was capable of doing this. The practice seemed to go on forever, but after it ended, Mike told me to come to more practices to see if cheer was something I would be interested in doing. Bri and I left, and she told me she was really proud of me. I still wasn’t sure what to think of cheer as a whole, though.

I kept on going to the practices to get accustomed to throwing women in the air. I kept working with Katie and progressed to getting her to an extension within a few weeks. I started taking things more seriously, adding on trips to a cheer training gym as well, which helped me a great deal. I didn’t see myself improving as much as I’d liked, but the coaches took note of my work and how I was working hard at practices. Two months passed, and Mike Stickle, the cheer teams’ head coach, pulled me aside and asked me if I was interested in joining the team. I said yes right away, and he told me he would send me some paperwork to finalize things that night. I told Bri that we were going to be teammates afterwards, and we both got excited about it. I told her that I would work hard to keep improving and be the best I could be. I was excited for this new journey to say the least. 

During the summer, I continued going to the training gym to make sure I kept improving my skills before football season. When our June practices came along, I remember it feeling surreal to be an athlete again. I didn’t realize how much I missed the summer grind of high school football, the long training sessions during basketball, and I was eager to get back into that type of routine. Cheer did just that for me. And because I’d kept working out with some of my future teammates, I didn’t feel like a fish out of water and those feelings of anxiousness and nervousness weren’t there anymore — a big difference from a few months prior. 

At our initial summer practices, we focused a lot on one of our fight songs, Bells. Because I grew up a Rutgers fan and went to football games ever since I was little, I already knew all the words to it, but I had no idea it was so important and is such a vital part of cheerleading. We spent a lot of time on it, and I remember my hand and shoulders becoming sore just from holding the megaphone. All the guys also learned how to run the flags. While it may not look hard, it was. The flags are pretty heavy, and running into the wind … I remember thinking to myself, if I think this gameday stuff is hard, then stunting is probably impossible.

In between the June and July practices, I tore my meniscus and sprained my PCL while playing basketball. I was given some crutches, and put on physical therapy. The PT sessions were hard, but returning to practice and my new teammates was keeping me going and making me work harder.

The day finally came in late August — just before our pre-season practices were to start — when I got cleared to go back to practice. I was custom fitted for a big, bulky brace to protect my knee, knowing that I had a lot of catching up to do. I expected to work with Katie again, but I was paired with Hailey Strieby, someone who I met through Bri earlier. I got nervous all over again, but she greeted me with a smile. I was really appreciative of how understanding she was of my recent injury and that I was going to be a bit rusty. I was, in fact, very rusty, I was starting to get really down on myself, but her telling me when she told me I was learning fast and that I had potential to get better.

As game day got closer and closer, it was all becoming real for me. I started hitting most stunts with consistency, and I felt as if I was ready to perform in front of thousands of people. Thanks to Hailey, I got my confidence back up to where it was before the injury. She made it fun for me and I’m extremely thankful that she was my game day partner for that first game. And now, with that game under my belt, I was ready for the lights… the cameras… and to get back in action.

Hailey Strieby ’20

It was finally game day, and putting on my uniform for the first time felt was surreal. Going to Rutgers games as a kid, I always wanted to be a Rutgers football player and I always wondered what it would feel like to run out of that tunnel. Now, here I was, a cheerleader instead and I would be, running out of a tunnel onto the field. I was shocked about how many people were in front of me. I was nervous that I would drop the stunts I’d been working on all summer. Hailey and I hit the first one of the day, and she turned around with a huge smile on her face and said “Good job!”

The game began and I realized I had the best seat in the house; I was right on the field. I could get used to this! We ended up winning the game and the atmosphere was amazing. I couldn’t wait to do it again. On my way home, I was still in awe of what I just did. And, I was so proud to be a Rutgers cheerleader.