Sports

Cheerleaders keep enthusiasm up

The cheerleaders get the crowd pumped at Friday’s pep rally with carefully choreographed floor routines.

If you’ve attended a Shelter Island basketball game this season,you’ve surely noticed the 12 smiling faces keeping the crowd pumpedup from the sidelines. This year’s cheerleading team, led by CoachKimberly Clark, is doing everything it can to keep the audience onits feet and the players energized, even when the Indians aredown.

They usually hone their skills in the lobby outside theauditorium, since the many Shelter Island sports teams leave opentime slots for the gym few and far between. The squad has beenworking tirelessly on its routines since late November. They’rebusy revamping last year’s cheers, perfecting their floor routinesand practicing lifts. They had also spent a great deal of timecreating a new dance for last Friday’s pep rally. “They always tryto have one better than the next, Coach Clark told the Reporterearly last week, adding, “We have worked so hard over break to getit all done – (unfortunately, the girls had to make some lastminute changes to their dance; see below).

It’s her second year in a row coaching the team – she alsocoached the two years before Linda Springer took over for the2007-08 season. “The girls actually asked me to do it again thisyear, which was very nice, she said. As an ex-cheerleader herself,she loves coaching the team. But she said her favorite part ofcoaching cheerleading is the girls: “They’re excited about it andit makes me excited about it.

There are two fewer cheerleaders than on last year’s 14-girlteam. Despite the reduction, it’s still far bigger than thefour-member squad of 2007-08. Like last year, these large numbersallow the team to execute more elaborate routines than was possiblewith just four girls, and there’s no shortage of enthusiasm. Fournew additions helped fill the spots left vacant by last year’s fivegraduating cheerleaders: the new girls are freshmen Lea Giambrunoand Tara Sturgis, junior Katie Cogan and senior Gina Giambruno.

The majority of the girls are seniors: Shelby Willumsen,Michelle Card, Claire Read, Kaela Loriz, Lisa Rasmussen, MariahJacobs and newcomer Gina Giambruno. Junior Margaret Hildreth andsophomore Ariana Loriz round out the team.

They decided not to implement their usual two-captain systemthis season. Rather, they’ve devised a rotating schedule thatallows different seniors to be the captains at different practicesand games. This new system will allow all seven seniors to takeactive leadership roles for the team.

Being a cheerleader isn’t all about chants and acrobatics – theyplay a crucial role in kicking off the game. After all, the refereecan’t toss the ball for the tip-off until a handful of cheerleaderstreat the audience to a beautiful rendition of the nationalanthem.

Furthermore, even though the girls spend most of their time onthe sidelines, cheerleading could easily be the most dangerousactivity on the court, as evidenced by Friday’s pep rally (seestory, page 27).

Be sure to check out their polished routines as the boysbasketball teams match up against Ross at home on Friday, January22. The junior varsity tip-off is at 4 p.m. and the varsity gamestarts at 5:45 p.m.