By Lexi Allen

Two Atlantic High School cheerleaders have been invited to audition for the Iowa Shrine Bowl.  The Shrine Bowl has been an honor for football players and cheerleaders that have excelled throughout the season.

Cheerleading coach Taylor Hastings has selected cheerleaders senior Hope Bowker and junior Lauren Krogman to attend the tryout on January 26 and 27.  This will take place at the Shrine Mosque in Altoona, Iowa. The tryout consists of a dance, cheers, chants, and jumps.

The girls must learn these performances in under one hour.  Bowker said the tryout process if very stressful.  This is Bowker’s second year being selected to try out and Krogman’s first.  Krogman said, “I felt good that I was selected.”  Bowker and Krogman said their strength for their cheerleading program is their dancing and jump skills.

It takes two weeks for the girls to know if they will be attending the Shrine Bowl Game.  Alumni Sierra Larsen said the Shrine Bowl was her favorite High School memory. Sierra said, “It was so fun and meaningful.”  Sierra thought it was an amazing feeling being nominated two years in a row, especially when she knew this was the perfect chance to give back to the hospital that gave so much to her when she was younger.

The first football and basketball Shrine games were held in Iowa City during the year of 1973.

They were financially unsuccessful their first year, and the basketball games were then dropped.  In 1974, people used hard, dedicated work to build up the program.  The debt was paid off, and now this event has given over $2 million in support of the Shrine Hospital programs for children.

Just a couple of years ago the Iowa Shrine Bowl program added an All-Star Cheerleader program.  This program has been very successful so far.  If cheerleaders are selected to cheer at the Shrine Bowl game, they will be asked to raise up to five hundred dollars from his/her own town.  Most of the money will go to the Shriner Hospitals to help the children in need.  The cheerleaders have to be available through the week of July 16-21.  During this week they will be practicing, visiting a Shriner Hospital, and attending an Honor Banquet.  They will also be in a parade, attend Adventureland, and be a part of the game, pre-game, and halftime entertainment.  The cheerleaders selected to attend a tryout are based off a junior and senior standing.  Cheerleading Head Coach Taylor Hastings said, “It is dependant on skill: strength and accuracy of motions, jumps and cheers.”

Bowker and Krogman will represent Atlantic High School athletics and give back to the Shriner Hospital for children in need.