If you have ever attended a North Allegheny football game — or any North Allegheny sporting event for that matter — you’ve probably seen Emma McWilliams. Emma is the cheerleader who looks to be running the whole show — leading the cheers, slinging T-shirts into the Student Section, singing “Hey Baby” at the beginning of the fourth quarter of football games, and making sure the rest of the NA cheer team is doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

But although McWilliams is known at NA for being a cheer captain, her cheerleading career goes far beyond North Allegheny.

The senior has been cheerleading since the age of six.

“My first cheerleading memory is cheering for a Tiger Pride football game when I was about seven,” she said. “When I was 11, I also started cheering for Pittsburgh Superstars.”

(Side note: For those of you who are not keen to the cheerleading scene in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Superstars, now known as Rockstars, is a competitive cheerleading program known for their many victories in national and local competitive cheerleading competitions.)

Although McWilliams enjoys competitive cheerleading more than high school cheerleading, due to the number of opportunities to meet new people that competitive cheer has provided, there are many things from NA Cheer that will be missed.

“I will especially miss football games and the bus rides home,” she said.

Speaking of missing things, due to the current state of our country many activities are being canceled and/or postponed. The pandemic has affected both NA Cheer and Pittsburgh Superstars, and McWilliams and the rest of North Allegheny’s cheerleaders will be missing many events that they have been looking forward to all year.

“I will be missing out on my last cheerleading worlds,” McWilliams said, referring to the cheerleading competition North Allegheny’s cheer team competes in nearly every school year.

This national pandemic has not only taken major cheerleading events away from Emma’s NA cheerleading career, but it is also affecting her Pittsburgh Superstars career.

“We have virtual practice on Zoom to condition and keep us in shape,” she said. “But I still miss practicing in person because that’s when I got the chance to see everyone. And I miss the amazing people I have met through Pittsburgh Superstars.”

In addition to North Allegheny cheer and Pittsburgh Superstars competitive cheer, McWilliams also coaches a special needs cheer team called Shining Stars.

“I began coaching Shining Stars when one of my best friends, Miah, decided to start cheering,” she said. “Shining Stars has taught me to always stay positive,and also how to love everyone unconditionally.”

While reflecting on her cheerleading career as an entirety, McWilliams said, “Cheer has shaped me into who I am today. The people I have met through cheerleading taught me so many things.”