Ragin’ rah, rah, rah!

After 15 years of dance and five years of cheerleading, Ville Platte native Morgan Manuel has tumbled her way onto her biggest stage yet. The 18-year-old Sacred Heart graduate, who once cheered for the Trojans, is now rooting on the Ragin Cajuns and pumping up the 31,000 fans that fill the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Cajun Field.
The versatility of this sport has provided Manuel with many aspects to love. “It’s hard to choose just one favorite thing about cheerleading because there are a lot of things that make up what we do as cheerleaders,” Manuel said. “What I enjoy the most about it would have to be a combination of both tumbling and dancing. It’s also so much fun because you can be as crazy as you want while trying to pump up the crowd.”
Manuel, who followed in her mother Angie Manuel’s footsteps by becoming a cheerleader for the Trojans, was first introduced to the craft of dance at the tender age of three. As a three-year-old, Manuel began her journey at Dance & Gym in Ville Platte. Manuel said, “That’s where I began to learn the fundamentals of dance and tumbling. Tumbling in that aspect was always my favorite.”
After years of dedication to perfecting her craft, Manuel was ready to attempt cheerleading as an eighth grader at Sacred Heart. Making the squad her eighth grade year of school began the preparation Manuel would need to pursue a long lasting cheerleader career.
After just one year of cheering on her fellow classmates at Sacred Heart, the decisive Manuel made the decision her freshman year that cheerleading would be something she would continue to pursue even after high school.
“I was always into sports and I knew I wanted to do something extra in college,” Manuel said. “Tumbling and dancing was the thing I had done the longest out of all of my sports and of course I love it, so my freshman year I decided I would cheer in college.”
When her senior year rolled around, Manuel’s dream of cheering in college had not gone away.
Tryouts for ULL’s cheerleading squad took place during Manuel’s senior year of high school and these tryouts proved more strenuous than the tryouts Manuel had grown use to.
The weekend long tryouts tested Manuel’s ability to stunt, chant, and interview. By the time the final day had rolled around Manuel had survived all of the cuts made during tryouts. Instead, Manuel, who described the tryouts as “stressful,” claimed one of the 13 coveted spots on the cheer squad.
Manuel entered a whole new league of cheerleading when she became a part of the ULL squad including Manuel having to become a flyer. Becoming a flyer meant that Manuel would now experience being elevated in the air by male cheerleaders.
“This is more challenging than in high school because they expect more from me in college,” Manuel said. “It’s also different because I’m use to cheering with all girls and now it’s a co-ed team and also I was never a flyer in high school but now I’m doing that.”
When it comes to balancing cheerleading and school, the engineering major has been preparing for this for years.
“High school definitely helped prepare me to be able to handle the stress of cheerleading and my school work. Because I was very active in high school and still had to worry about keeping up my grades, I was able to learn how to balance everything,” Manuel said. “I make a schedule every week of what I have to do and when I have to do it.”
Now that the football season is in full swing, Manuel has already gotten to experience her first college football game as a cheerleader. Manuel said, “I was so nervous for that first game, but we won so it was a good way to start off for me.”
As her college career as a ULL cheerleader continues, the girl from Ville Platte is just thankful for the opportunities making this cheer squad has already provided her with.
Manuel said, “All of the friendships and opportunities it gave me to start out my freshman year, it’s really rewarding. I know a lot of people go to college not knowing anyone, but I already had a family that I had gained over the summer from the practices we had.
Completely humbled, Manuel then said, “I was able to come into college already having friends to call if I need anything and for that reason, I consider myself very lucky.”