Basketball hello cheers are a great way to get a game started full of spirit and a winning attitude by all the fans and team members alike. They serve as a kind of clarion call to the entire gymnasium, establishing who you are as a school, as a team, and as a squad.
Basketball hello cheers have to be incredibly energetic in order to grab the attention of the fans. Luckily they are usually done at the beginning of a game, when a squad's voices are the most fresh and able to carry through all the extra noise at a game. Usually they're also very effective when the squad makes their entrance, whether just through the doors or (more exciting) bursting through a large paper banner along with the team.
Using Basketball Hello Cheers as to Introduce Players
Before your fans can really begin to cheer for you and your team, they need to know who you are, right? Of course they have some idea of the team and school name, but if you use a hello cheer to really personalize the team for the fans they can get a better idea of who they are cheering for. Often newcomers to games will choose random players to cheer for, and by giving them a name to go with the number in a hello cheer you can make the game that much more personal for both the fans and the players. For example,
Number 23, check him out!
He's what we are all about!
Doug MacKenzie, that's his name!
Give him the ball, cuz HE GOT GAME!
Obviously the names and numbers of actual players would be substituted in the cheer, but that's the general idea. This could become a formula for the entire team, which has the advantage of getting the audience chanting along as new players come out. If that happens, it's a good idea to have some kind of transitional cheer sound to break the cheers apart - a simple "Whoop! Whoop! Swisssssshhhh…" gives the fans time to both give extra cheers for their favorite players and also prepare for the next introduction.
There's no reason why the hello cheers at a basketball game can't also be used to introduce the cheerleading squad. An example of this technique is this cheer, for a squad member named Angie:
We don't need no fireworks,
We don't need no band!
We've got Angie's spirit!
Now come on clap your hands!
(clap clap) Yeah! (clap clap) Yeah!
C'mon, Angie, Yeah!
A very effective way to use this cheer is to have each cheerleader have some signature move to do on the sidelines as their name is put into the cheer. A split, a back bend, even just a spirited shake of the pom poms will put the focus, momentarily, on the cheerleader. This is also a great cheer to fill the time during a time-out.
Using Hello Cheers for School Spirit
The most effective way to use any cheer is to personalize it - the cheers listed above are meant to be guidelines rather than simply used by your squad. If you go on the internet you can find thousands of cheers done by other squads - but so can anyone else. Making up your own words to the cheers is not very hard, and can actually make your fans even more connected to your team. Take two examples, one generic, one personalized:
Pass the ball, Take the shot, Let's go team! Now we're hot!
and
Spartans strong! Spartans proud! Come on, Spartans! Shout out loud! GO, SPARTANS, GO! (repeat)
The first is fine, with all the hallmarks of a good basketball cheer - short words, a rhythm and rhyme scheme that is easy to say and hear and cut through the noise of the game. However, in the second the name of the school team is mentioned four times, the last time meant to be shouted as loud as possible. Which one would give the crowd more of a sense of identity with their team, their school, and the cheer squad?
Make your cheers a way for your fans to connect to the spirit of the school, and the bleachers will be filled with shouting fans game after game.
