The Pepster team was founded by Dayanara Flores and Destiny Mendoza. Rio Hondo has not had a Pepsters cheerleading team in over ten years. Flores was in the process of starting the film, cinema and stage club. That process inspired both Flores and Mendoza to create their own cheer program. “We made this a club and wanted to support basketball games whether that was the women’s or the men’s” Flores explains.
The Pepsters had attended three to four basketball games. The first game they attended was a men’s basketball home game on November 21,2024 against Chaffey College.“The first game was a lot, we had the mascot there and around 15 cheerleaders from our group, the mascot really pulled it together” Flores says.
Cheerleading is a very contact based sport which requires lots of stunts and tumbling. As of now, the Pepsters group is a student led organization and does not have their own coach. They are actively on the search for a coach that can teach them how to conduct their stunts and tumbling.
The process of maintaining the Pepsters organization has been very difficult. “It’s a difficult process because we were thinking, how do we keep it engaged? A lot of people have different schedules to really make a time commitment” Flores expresses. To resolve that issue, members of the group decided it would be best if the team meets at the basketball games to cheer on their fellow roadrunners.
There are 20 participants on the pepster squad. The team has all female members. They are currently in the process of getting their cheerleading uniforms for this year and season. They also are on the lookout for a permanent practice location so they can perfect their cheers, stunts, and tumbling. “We are also looking forward to having a place or room to commit, practice in, we haven’t had that yet. We’re looking to do that this semester so that next semester can go smoothly” Flores claims.
The cheer team is always looking for new members to join their organization. They express that people that are interested in joining cheer do not need any experience to sign up. The team is most active on their Instagram account @riohondopepsters. People interested can always send the account a direct message for more information to join. It is not late to join since the team is just starting out!