Maya McFadden Photo
Cross cheer team performs a “basket toss” at time-out.
Despite injuries, nerves, and muscle soreness, the Wilbur Cross cheerleading team got back in the game this season.
The team worked overtime for weeks to prepare to compete in the New England Open Cheer & Dance Competition Saturday at East Haven High School. Cross’s team hadn’t participated in competitions in four years. This season the coaches and team members decided to up their game and become more competitive in what some people don’t always recognize for being the sport that it is.
The long-awaited result: the team placed second place at Saturday’s competition, the second of the year.
Cross’s revived cheer team.
Two days before the team members went to the competition they cheered on the basketball team at its winning SCC (Southern Connecticut Conference) quarterfinal game against Amity Regional. The girls warmed up in the cafeteria after getting suited up and got in a few practice runs of their sideline cheers.
Assistant Coach Ebony McClease gathered the team up from the cafeteria after warming up to welcome the basketball team and coaches with a “Push ‘Em” cheer. The 19 cheerleaders then rushed into the full gym with pom-poms in hand.
For many on the team, cheerleading is more than a hobby. Shalymar Rosa, 17, for instance, intends to join a cheer team in college and become a team captain.
As a senior Rosa decided to try out for the team to cheer for her first time. Rosa transferred to Cross last year after her previous school closed. Rosa said she had always been interested in cheerleading, but it wasn’t offered at her last school, so Rosa played volleyball and basketball to keep active.
Now Rosa has a dedicated passion for cheerleading and all the skill and work required in it. “We’re not accessories. We’re athletes,” Rosa said.
The topic of Rosa’s ten-page senior paper is the sport of cheerleading. “I can give anyone a million reasons why it is a sport,” she said.
“A sport that uses no padding at that,” she added.
The sport requires both mental and physical skill, she noted. “Lifting a person in the air properly and catching them properly requires a lot of strength and precise skill.”
Iris Castillo, Ai Ling Chow-yen, Shalymar Rosa, and Lyric Miller.
At the start, Rosa was hesitant of her abilities. She has improved significantly, and performed in the Saturday competition with the team. “I didn’t think I could be a base and put a whole person in the air,” she said. Now Rosa has the basket toss stunt nearly perfected as she interlocks her fingers with two other bases to toss a flyer into the air.
“I feel more comfortable with them than anyone else,” Rosa said about her team.
The team functions much like a family, said McClease.
Freshman Ai Ling Chow-yen, 14. joined the team to meet new people and show off her school spirit.
“I thought it was going to be easier,” she said. Before joining the team Chow-yen didn’t consider how much upper body strength she would need and the skill it takes to remember dozens of cheers.
“We use just as much physical exertion as any other sport,” she said.
Iris Castillo is the team manager. She initially got the position by showing up to all practices and joking about being their manager. Her role requires her to work with the coaches on technical tasks like cheer choices and paperwork while also managing her teammates on a personal level. Castillo is interested in pursuing sports management after high school.
Lyric Miller, 16, now a junior, joined the team her freshman year. As a flyer, Miller sprained her ankle during a recent practice from landing the wrong way on it.
Next year Miller has a good chance at being a team captain, said Krystal Gentles, 17. To prepare Miller, the three current captains let her run a practice alone earlier this month.
The team practices three days a week with practice, from two to four hours a day, in either the gym or the atrium for higher ceilings.
This past week the team spent practice time sharpening up competition performances.
Assistant coach Ebony McClease.
This year is McClease’s first as the assistant cheer coach. McClease, a special education teacher at Cross, is an alum. As a student, McClease played basketball, so all year she has been learning something new about cheerleading from the team.
McClease said she has learned a new level of sportsmanship and a sports mentality from her team.
“I’ve really learned what it means to be a mentor,” McClease said.
Krystal Gentles, Destinee Marotta, and Joi Howard.
Gentles is one of three team captains along with Destinee Marotta and Joi Howard.
Gentles joined the team her freshman year. Before joining, Gentles said, she was sure her previous dance experience would give her a leg up. She was surprised to learn that the two are quite different. Gentles went from learning dance jumps like a straddle leap and switch leap to cheerleading jumps like tucks and herkies.
“If I didn’t do cheer, I wouldn’t be who I am today,” she said.
The head coach for Wilbur Cross Cross Cheerleaders Diondrea Brown along with Asst coach Ebony McClease and Asst Coach Martha Ross, have word very hard to bring Cheerleadering to the forefront. Cheer is often put on the back burner as NOT a sport....But is is..
These young ladies and thier coach's deserve a big round of applause, they worked very hard to get back to the competition level they were at 3 years ago...I see big thing in the future for this team and the coach.