The beats of hip-hop music often reverberate throughout the Costello Sports Complex before the sun has even fully hit the horizon. And if you ever took the time to explore the rhythmic cadences, you might just find one of USM’s hidden athletic treasures: the cheerleading team.
For the first time in five years, the USM cheerleaders were able to make an impressive appearance in Daytona, Florida, taking second place in the all-girl, Division II National Tournament.
Attaining such a prestigious title was certainly no easy journey for the team. All season the cheerleaders faced diverse challenges, such as adapting to a new coach, raising enough money in an economic recession to be able to compete at nationals and staying together as a team when it looked as though everything was falling apart.
“This was definitely a building year,” says sophomore captain Stephanie Dragoon. “We had never even met our coach before, so it was kind of rough going into the year. We just didn’t know what to expect, but she turned out to be awesome.”
Luckily for the team, the coaching change was more than just a comfortable one. Ir was a successful one, too, as evidenced in the team’s strong showing at the national level.
After sending in a video of the team’s stunts, tumbling and crowd cheers in the beginning of the year, the team received a bid to compete on a national level.
“Because we had a late coach, they let us have an alternative way in because we didn’t have a chance to receive a bid through the summer camp,” says Dragoon. “Next summer we will have to attend a cheering camp for four days at Boston College and that’s how we’ll receive our bid.”
The opportunity to compete in Florida was monumental, not only for this year’s team, but for many cheering teams to come. If the USM squad could pull off at least a top three finish, they would be able to make a name for themselves and finally make the term “cheerleading” more familiar around USM.
After constantly fundraising all season and waking up at 6 a.m. for rigorous practices, the team was finally ready to make a showing in Daytona.
Or so they thought.
Just a week before their departure, the team lost a crucial flyer due to a torn ACL and then, when things couldn’t get any worse, Kayla Methot, a junior and first year flyer for the squad, hit the ground hard during their final practice and was unable to compete with just two days until nationals. With such a drastic loss, the team’s walls were ready to crumble.
“We have so many people taking part in this routine and when you lose a person, everything falls apart, it’s not like you have an extra pair to come in and save it,” says Methot.
Despite being faced with such an uphill battle, the team was able to pull together and overcome the challenges that had plagued them all season, thanks mostly to an experienced coach who was able to demonstrate impeccable leadership at such a critical time.
“So our coach said, ‘Well, this what we’re going to do. We’re going to leave for nationals. We’re not going to fix it yet. We’re going to get down there, we’re going to practice, and then we’re going to fix it,” Dragoon recalls. “In theory, Naomah had this all ready to go. The rest of the team was ready to fall apart, but she was totally cool about it.”
The cool factor paid off.
The squad nailed their routine both days and despite one failure at a pyramid attempt, the Huskies still managed to take second place out of eight teams at the intermediate level.
“This experience was definitely a mood setter for next year. We saw so much cheering that it made us stop and think like, Wow, we didn’t know cheering was like this,” Dragoon says.
Although the cheering world is still rather unknown on USM’s campus, the squad is extremely hopeful and sees each supporter as a valuable one.
“As the season progressed we were starting to get that recognition with people saying, ‘Wow, you guys look good this year,’ and ‘Oh, you have a lot of people on your team,’ and things like that. It’s definitely starting to get there. It just takes time,” Dragoon concludes.
With coach Naomah already receiving E-mails from high school students across Maine, it isbeginning to look as though it may take less time than they thought. The girls hope to be able to compete in more competitions by next year and also plan on making a return to nationals after attending the four-day cheering camp in Boston this summer.
“We’re laying down the foundation in hopes to see where it goes from here,” Methot says.