When the 2019-20 school year came to an end at Sedona Red Rock High School, it also marked the end of an era for the Scorpions cheerleading team.

Diana Zaun — one of the captains on the team — has now graduated from SRRHS. Zaun was one of only two seniors on the team and the only four-year cheerleader at the high school.

Now that her time in high school is complete, Zaun is headed to the University of Arizona, where she’ll study veterinary science, and wants to eventually become a veterinarian. That stems from a passion of hers that developed toward the beginning of her time in high school.

“I have been fostering dogs from Flagstaff for about four years,” Zaun said. “That kind of made the decision for me.”

Zaun had a number of good memories from her time cheerleading for the Scorpions. One of them was playing the game “ships and sailors” with fellow cheerleaders, where the girls go in certain directions based on different commands. Zaun also said that the road games against Camp Verde were among her favorite memories, as they were the only games away from Sedona that the cheerleaders could travel to.

Aside from cheerleading, Zaun wasn’t active in any clubs at Red Rock High School, noting that she didn’t really have time. This was because she was splitting her time at the high school and Yavapai college, where she took classes in the afternoon four days out of the week.

Zaun added that when the school was closed in the COVID-19 shutdown, her course load made the adjustment online relatively smooth — at least for a while.

“I was already taking online classes through Red Rock Academy so I could get extra credit,” she said. “It didn’t phase me as much as everyone else. But once it got going a little longer, it wasn’t the best. It just got annoying.”

Zaun’s graduation — as well as the entire Class of 2020’s — marks the end of an era at SRRHS in another respect. And because of that, her graduation
may well have come at the perfect time.

Zaun said that her favorite sporting events to cheer at were football games. But cheerleaders will be unable to do for at least one year, as the school suspended the football program for the 2020-21 school year.

Chief among the reasons for canceling football was the lack of numbers for the program. Zaun noted that other athletic programs, like cheerleading, could struggle with numbers without having a football team to cheer for in the fall.

“Our whole senior class — we’re the last ones with football,” Zaun said. “It’s going to be a lot smaller. The most girls that we ever had for basketball season was seven. That’s going to be [cheerleading coach Teresa Lamparter’s] biggest problem now.”