Oak Forest High School Student Makes USA Junior Co-Ed Cheer Team

OAK FOREST, IL — An Oak Forest High School student nearly flipped out of this world when he found out he had been selected to represent the National USA Junior Coed Cheerleading Team in the cheerleading world championships this September.

Carter Boger, a senior at Oak Forest High School, found out he made the team about two years ago, just before the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the competition. When the next Worlds season rolled around, Boger said it "was like a second redemption."

"It was almost like I made the team all over again," Boger said. "That was really exciting too, because we were all anticipating whether or not we were going to compete again. And if we were going to have the opportunity to compete with the same people on the team. Most people did stay in, so it really was like a second trial. I kind of had the same feeling, but this time it was more real."

The Cheerleading Worlds Competition is an annual international championship event for competitive cheerleading held in the United States. This event is hosted by the U.S. All Star Federation, in partnership with the International All Star Federation, a global organization of cheerleading professionals and athletes and the governing body for all-star cheer and dance competitions around the world.

To receive a bid to compete in the Worlds competition, teams from more than 40 countries compete each year in the three-day event, which consists of preliminary competitions, semi-finals and finals, according to wikipedia.

The Worlds Competition will be held virtually this year, and a date has yet to be chosen. The U.S. team has already filmed their routine, according to Jamie Bonnema, a public relations specialist for Bremen High School District 228.

"We are very excited that Carter gets to represent Oak Forest High School, our district, community, and nation on a worldwide stage," Bonnema told Patch in an email.

Boger said the wait has been a mix of emotions, but overall, he is excited and confident. When initially selected to the team, he was placed as an alternate, because the national team would interfere with what he calls his number one priority: the Oak Forest High School cheerleading team.

"My freshman year, I tried out for Oak Forest cheerleading, but it didn't matter which team I made. I had eight years of competitive gymnastics under my belt, and I was out of it for a while, and I did cheer in eighth grade, but it wasn't like anything compared to what I now do with Oak Forest," Boger said. "I said, 'why not just give it a shot,' then ended up making varsity my freshman year.

"Cheer is the number one thing in my life, second to school. Ever since my Freshman year, my life has been school, cheer, school, cheer ... cheer is pretty much all I knew, and now know."

Boger, who graduates from Oak Forest High School in May, hopes to continue his cheer career in college.

"Right now I'm looking for a college veterinarian program, and then obviously the cheer program," Boger said. "I don't want to do sideline cheer, I want to do competitive cheerleading, so finding a school that has that is important to me."