The Bombshells and their friends cheer on the volleyball team at the 2010 NCAA Women’s Volleyball Elite Eight in November. The Bombshells are a student cheering section started in the fall by members of the women’s basketball team.

Senior Alex Hoover formed the group hoping to garner fan support for other women’s varsity programs. She began recruitment for the Bombshells by contacting the captains of every female team on campus, and received positive feedback.

“Obviously people at Wash. U…their number one priority is not athletics. We don’t go to a school like Duke where the gym is going to be filled,” Hoover said. “I think getting athletes to start supporting other sports is the best way to get people to come to games…I’m hoping that this idea can catch on and people will get more excited so that on a Friday night, a basketball game or soccer game is the place to be.”

Members of the Bombshells explained that although many athletes at Wash. U. have become accustomed to playing in front of smaller crowds, enthusiastic fans would have the potential to boost teams’ performances.

“As varsity athletes ourselves…we know how it feels to play in front of a huge crowd and how much of an impact that can have not only on your school spirit, but [also] it definitely affects your game,” senior Hannah Cusworth, a teammate of Hoover’s, said. “It’s easier to get another athlete [to join] because that athlete knows what it’s like to have the gym be dead, or there be no one in the stands.”

The name for the group was suggested by women’s basketball head coach Nancy Fahey. In a meeting with her captains regarding team bonding, the athletes began to consider how they could extend team spirit to the entire community.

“We wanted to incorporate this idea of school spirit,” senior Monika Monson said. “It’s a way for us to bond as a team and also bond among other female athletes.”

The Bombshells’ first event was the homecoming football game against Westminster College on Sept. 25. Members of the basketball and volleyball teams took to the stands clad in pink, armed with signs and cheers . Dressed in all black, players from the baseball team also attended in conjunction with the Bombshells.

“There was a lot of planning that went into it…we were all doing really crazy cheers and just trying to be loud,” Monson said. “We stood the entire game, all four quarters, and it was cold but it was a lot of fun.”

The group hopes to work in collaboration with Red Alert and the Bomb Squad, a student cheering section largely composed of Phi Delta Theta fraternity brothers. Since Hoover and her teammates are seniors, they hope that working with other spirit groups will generate not only casual membership, but leadership as well.

“If we have more incentives for people to come, I think that’s going to encourage more people to come to the games,” Hoover said. “Unfortunately it’s my senior year, but I’m hoping to be able to find enough people who are interested in taking the reins on this and making it happen.”

While female athletes were integral to the group’s creation, the Bombshells hope to continue to grow and generate interest among more athletes and non-athletes alike.

“I think it would be cool if we came back years from now…if it became a more organized group, like a subdivision of Red Alert,” Cusworth said. “It could potentially become a Student Union-recognized group. That would be really cool.”

The Bombshells will bring their cheers and pink attire to the home softball games this weekend. They will be attending in support of the team’s “Strikeout Cancer” effort.

“It’s a great chance to support our softball team as well as cancer awareness, so it’s a perfect opportunity for anyone and everyone to come out…you don’t have to be an athlete or a female to support,” Hoover said.