As of October 2026, Grayslake Central athletic director, David Shafron, has received multiple recommendations and requests to add a new activity to GCHS: step cheer. Step cheer is a high-energy cheer style that uses the body as an instrument to create rhythms.  It is a form of art that can bring people together culturally and physically, which is highly important for a high school environment.

However, the process of adding a new activity or a sport to the school is more complicated than one might expect.“It seems hard to find a sponsor for step cheer though,” Shafron said. Shafron went on to explain that while activities tend to be more student driven, the future faculty sponsor must be extremely involved and assume the role as a skilled coach. “They need to know how to choreograph, they need to know the steps, they need to know the music, they need to know just how to teach it, how to instruct it… that’s the part that could be difficult,” Shafron said.

Helen Forojoye, a junior at GCHS, has expressed her passion for a step cheer team to be formed before she graduates high school next year. Forojoye explained that step cheer makes beats by using excessive force when dancing. “Step cheer combined our own chants instead of music,” she said. Elizabeth C. Fine, professor, filmmaker and author of “Soulstepping: African American Step Shows,” wrote about how step cheer can encourage cultural awareness and promote leadership, all of which is made possible by mentors in the step community. “What makes stepping so stimulating is the range of movements patterns and verbal genres. The combination of speaking, chanting and singing along with stomping, clapping, gymnastics and choreographed movements, creates a reflexive, malleable, and highly expressive art form,” Fine said in her book. All students regardless of age should have an outlet that they can express themselves clearly and that allows them to explore their culture freely. The only reason why this outlet hasn’t been granted at Grayslake Central yet is because of budgeting and lack of sponsors.