Braylen Mitchell 11, a student at Lewis-Palmer, recently had to endure the challenge of moving between multiple cities, houses, and states in the course of a few months. During the processes of moving, she had to slowly leave her friends, family and the life she created in Kansas all behind her to start a new life in Colorado. 

Mitchel grew up as a farmer’s daughter, or at least a farmer’s grand-daughter. Her grandparents owned a 95 acre farm where she grew up playing with their animals and working on the family farm. 

“I was always really excited to go to the farm,” Mitchel said. “I would always go out to their house on Friday after school or after practice.” 

At Lewis-Palmer, students can see Mitchel on the side of the football games cheering and doing  fulls on the sidelines. But Mitchel isn’t just involved in cheer, as she was a gymnast 14 years. She was a Level 8 gymnast who was doing level 9 and 10 skills.

“I realized by the time I was probably 11 or 12 that I was never going to be the type of gymnast who would go into college because you have to be very advanced because only 20% of all gymnasts make it into college gymnastics,” Mitchel said.

With having participated in competitive gymnastics for years, it may seem that injury was inevitable. Mitchel broke her foot, ankle, both her wrists and had to have surgery on her foot. 

As much as she loved gymnastics, Mitchel decided to quit a year before she moved to Colorado. She wanted to go into a sport that she knew she could go to college for, as she did not think gymnastics would get her there. 

A year after she quit gymnastics, and a few months after she moved, Mitchel tried out for the LPHS cheer team. After a private tryout with the coaches and a few girls who were already on the team, she officially made the LPHS varsity cheer team. 

“The girls that I met through the Lewis Palmer cheer team are super nice. And they made Lewis-Palmer feel like my home,” Mitchel said.