Junior Maria Rohe is a swimmer and a member of La Salle’s cheer team. Rohe, a former member of La Salle’s dance team, is now a part of cheer as La Salle has reintroduced it as a sport. Rohe has been swimming since she was four, and when she joined the La Salle team her freshman year, she made varsity and has been a varsity swimmer since. 

She was inspired to begin swimming as her grandpa had done it throughout college and high school. She also expressed that some of the people she has competed with really help her to push herself and improve.

Rohe’s favorite part of swim is “just getting to be on a team and be able to compete at meets and cheer on your teammates,” she said.

Rohe also enjoys working to improve and making goals for herself. This year she hopes that the team will get first in districts and that she will beat her personal record for the 100-yard backstroke.

In meets, Rohe’s main event is the 100-yard backstroke. Aside from that, she has competed in many other events and is willing to compete in any event when they need someone. The events she has competed in are 100, 200, and 500-yard freestyle. There are also relays, like the 200-yard medley, where she swims backstroke, and the 200 and 400-yard freestyle medley. 

Outside of participating in swim during the winter season, Rohe is also a member of La Salle’s cheerleading team.

Cheer interested Rohe because she had participated in gymnastics when she was younger. Rohe enjoys learning different routines and expression styles, and working on tumbling. This year she hopes that the team will be able to grow. 

Rohe is a flyer and says that it is “the most fun part” of being part of the cheer team, but when she first started it was scary being tossed up in the air. After a while, Rohe got used to it, and since then, she has had many great performances. 

This year Rohe’s favorite memory of being on the cheer team was the homecoming football game performance. “That was definitely one of our best performances that we’ve had,” she said.

Despite the team’s initial apprehension about performing in front of the whole school, as the season progressed and the team performed more often, they began to feel more confident and supported by the student body.

“We’d have people out there cheering for us and being really excited that we were out there,” she said. “And that gave us something to aspire to and something positive.”      

Rohe is unsure if she will continue swimming after high school as it grows more competitive, but she does wish to continue cheer. Looking into the future, Rohe looks forward to the cheer team taking part in competitions next year, as well as seeing the swim team continue to grow the rest of this season.