Portage High School Mourns 17-Year-Old Cheerleader Lost in Car Accident

The loss of a loved one or any dear friend can be hard to accept. The Portage High School dance and cheer team went into shock after they received the horrific news. Lily Hebel, one of their dance members, lost her life in a car accident on September 9th.

However, the accident happened just a week before Lily’s 18th birthday. The entire cheerleading team has gone into shock and is struggling to get a hold of themselves. Hopefully, the family members can cope with this massive loss.

Teammates remember Lily Hebel in sweet gesture

Lily and her memories are very fresh and her teammates are finding it tough to cope with it. However, in order to keep her fresh in mind, the team is trying a variety of things. One of her team members, Cora Grove, shared her story while speaking to wiscnews:

“I know she wouldn’t have wanted us all to just mope, be sad or not do anything,” senior Cora Grove said of Hebel, who opted to forgo cheer this fall to focus on another passion: archery. “I’ve left school and broken down because it’s very upsetting, but she wouldn’t want us to just show up to school and do nothing. She would have wanted us to push through and be how we used to be.”

However, the team addressed the elephant in the room just two days after Lily’s death. Rather than completely sweeping things under the carpet, the team decided to speak about the incident. The team members and the coach decided to have a team meeting.

“We had a lot of tears, a lot of frustration, but we decided we were going to play games and talk about good, fond memories of Lily,” Barrett said. “We got a lot of long smiles and giggles out of that, which I think were really helpful.”