Boerne Champion cheerleader Tess Young gets a lift from her teammates at last week's pre-season pep rally, celebrating the debut of the Champion Chargers. Photos by Mike Reeder

Boerne football players are not the only ones who might feel like strangers in a strange land this season when they look around at what used to be purple-drenched bleachers that once rocked with cries of “Go Greyhounds!”

So, to ease the culture shock of cheering for new colors and a different mascot, the Champion Charger football moms decided it would be a good idea to hold a pre-season pep rally Aug. 14 at the high school football field, complete with cheerleaders and the Champion Charms dance team.

Several hundred fans showed up to see the cheerleaders’ new routines and to learn the words of such soon-to-be classic yells as, “Go, blue and white! CHS let’s fight!”

“It will take a little getting used to,” Head Varsity Cheerleader Ashley Kinchen conceded. “But it’s a great opportunity and it’s cool to be the first graduating class. I’m really excited about the new school and I’ve already learned to love the new colors.”

Tiffany Stehling, a second-year Boerne teacher and the new Cheerleader sponsor, says the squad had plenty of time to adjust to the change this summer during camp.

“We’ve been practicing as Champion Chargers this entire summer, so I think we’re ready for the transition,” Stehling said. “They normally learn new things every year anyway, and I’m a new sponsor so everything is new. We’ll have some old faithful cheers, but most of them are new.”

The Boerne Samuel V. Champion cheerleaders lead the crowd in new yells at a pre-season pep rally organized by the football moms.

“Everything is brand new, just like the school,” Lee said. “New name, new team, new uniforms. They’re going to look sharp out on the field, all blue and white.”

Students, faculty and staff all had a hand in choosing a new name for the dance team.

“A bunch of students submitted names and we took those names and narrowed them down to three,” Lee said. “Then everyone voted and we ended up with the Champion Charms.”

Lee says there are no carryover routines and no borrowing from the past.

“We have all brand new routines,” Lee said. “The girls already learned two pep rally routines and one field routine and they’re working on the new fight song.”

What it all boils to is nothing borrowed and all things blue, nothing old and everything new. Both squads will polish their acts on the road for a couple of away games before debuting at home Sept. 12 when Boerne hosts Del Rio.