Q&A with Cheerleading Coach Harold Trammel

GoPack.com: When does your season start?

TRAMMEL: The process starts at the end of April, with our spring tryout. The selected team will get together three weekends over the summer to practice and to introduce the incoming cheerleaders to our structures and traditions. We also work on their ability to interact with a crowd and their skill development. These areas are critical to our cheerleader's ability to perform strongly on the field and at Nationals.

GoPack.com: Do you compete at all during the summer months?

TRAMMEL: Yes we do. In August each summer, we attend NCA Collegiate cheerleading camp at Myrtle Beach, SC. Camp is our first chance to compare our team to other teams that we will later compete against in the year. Camp is also a time for the team to improve their skills by working with some of the top instructors in the nation. This year we won the spirit routine contest.

October through December we video tape our practices to capture the most difficult skills we can perform with the most participants at the highest level of execution. The tapes from these months of practice are consolidated into a 1 minute and 30 second video that shows a combination of basket tosses, standing and running tumbling, pyramids and partner stunts. This year we placed 3^rd in our division and qualified for paid bid to Nationals.

GoPack.com: When did you begin to put the Nationals routine into place?

TRAMMEL: In January, just before everyone comes back from the holiday break, we teach the team their Nationals routine and start practicing three or four nights a week, depending on the number of basketball games. Practices are designed to prepare and help the team feel confident about themselves and their routine.

This year we tried something a little different. We invited former cheerleaders and coaches to practices and exhibitions to help critique the routine and give the team some feedback. The common theme was that the team really needed to perform and have fun. If the team performed and had fun they would have more energy, look better and be more confident in themselves. We applied this feedback and it worked out for the team.

GoPack.com: Where does the team practice?

TRAMMEL: We typically practice at Carmichael in the gymnastics facility. However, we practice off campus later in the season to get an opportunity to practice on a competition floor. A competition floor is a 1 ¼" thick foam floor, 42x54 feet in size. A gymnastics floor is a 40x40 foot spring floor which is safer and more forgiving for learning skills. Since we compete on a floor that is larger and does not offer the benefit of springs we teach our team to master skills on the gymnastics floor and transfer them to the harder competition surface. To get on a competition floor practice at Impact Athletics in Cary once a week starting in January until we leave for Nationals in April.

GoPack.com: Talk about the limitations to your roster, as far as rules and competitions go.

TRAMMEL: Our roster includes 44 cheerleaders and six mascots but we can only compete 20 cheerleaders and one mascot at Nationals.

GoPack.com: So, like any other team, personnel changes are made as the year goes on?

TRAMMEL: We planned our routine in December and taught it to the team in January. Some things came together like we wanted them to and others did not. We knew that in order to have a chance to win the team would have to hit every skill in their routine. As time passed we realized that one of our partner stunt sequences need another guy, making that change worked out well for us.

GoPack.com: Are your routines for football and basketball used when you compete nationally?

TRAMMEL: Most of our routines for football and basketball games are not. However, after we've mastered some of the skills from our Nationals routine we start integrating them into what we do for games. This typically happens in late January, early February. By late February, early March we are at a point where we can throw most of the routine pretty consistently. This year we performed three-fourths of our Nationals routine at half time of the Wake Forest Men's basketball game.

GoPack.com: How important is the ability to be able to practice your routine and skills in front of crowds before heading to nationals?

TRAMMEL: It's very important. We try to get the team in front of people as much as we can. The first time the team performed part of their Nationals routine was the second week of February at the Spirit Express Sweetheart Classic. Performing a routine in front of other people is quite different from working on the routine at practice. When you only get the opportunity to compete once per season it is very important to know how each person on your team is going to handle the excitement before you get to Nationals. For those that get nervous we try to help them relax and focus on what they are doing instead of what is going on around them and the excitement of the moment. We try to schedule enough exhibitions to see if people perform consistently and to assess if what we are doing to help them control their nerves is helping.

GoPack.com: Can you explain the travel arrangements for the cheerleading squad during football and basketball?

TRAMMEL: The Athletics Department and the Wolfpack Club our travel to away games and tournaments. We are able to travel six couples, one mascot, one coach and one trainer for away football and bowl games. We typically bus to most games with the exception of Florida State and Boston College which we fly to.

We don't travel for basketball until post season play (ACC, NIT and/or NCAA Tournament play). When we travel we send six couples, one mascot, one coach and one trainer.

GoPack.com: How do you finance the voyages to the competitions that you are involved in?

TRAMMEL: We submit a request at the beginning of the season for our competition. The athletic department and the Wolfpack Club make sure that our expenses are taken care of.

GoPack.com: How often do you switch out your equipment?

TRAMMEL: We switch out our shoes and practice clothes on an annual basis. Warm-ups are usually switched out every three years. We can use the same uniforms for four or five years.

GoPack.com: How many different uniforms do you have?

TRAMMEL: Currently we have a total of nine different uniforms that we use. We have five for our red team and four for our white team.

GoPack.com: Explain the difference between the two squads.

TRAMMEL: Both squads are considered varsity teams, but the red team is the more experienced team. They cheer for football, 12 cheerleaders and one mascot travel for away football games, and they cheer for men's basketball. When we travel for tournament play, like the ACC and NCAA tournaments, twelve members and one mascot will get to travel with them. Our white team cheers for home football and women's basketball. The same things apply to them for tournament play.

GoPack.com: How do you split the squads for football games?

TRAMMEL: The squads ultimately are split based on talent, maturity and experience. However, freshman are allowed to make the red team.

With the number of new cheerleaders that we brought into the program this season, we wanted to make sure we had experienced cheerleaders on the sidelines for the younger ones to learn from. We decided to split our red and white teams in half and mix them together for games. Half of each team cheered together in front of the student section, and the other half of each team cheered together in front of the alumni section.

GoPack.com: Do the cheerleading and dance teams practice together alongside the mascot?

TRAMMEL: The mascots and the two coed cheerleading squads that I coach practice together however the dance team has their own coach and their own practice schedule.

GoPack.com: Do you have a lot of people coming into NC State with the intention of making the squad? In addition to that, what are you looking for from people who try to make the roster?

TRAMMEL: Our tradition of being a strong cheerleading program attracts a lot of cheerleaders to NC State. Those that come to NC State go through a tryout process which focuses on physical abilities and their ability to cheer. Tryouts are offered in late April and early September. Athletes are allowed to tryout for stunting or tumbling positions. Although there are options, we expect a minimum amount of standing tumbling from everyone, which includes a standing back tuck and toe touch back tuck. Those trying out for stunting positions will throw two optional stunts. Girls will need to 720 from at least one of their stunts. Those trying out for tumbling positions will do a standing tuck, a toe touch tuck but will also throw a standing pass through to full and two running pass through to full and a toss shoulder stand.