WILDWOOD – It takes more than teased and sprayed hair, sparkly eye shadow and lipstick, and form-fitting outfits of spandex and rhinestones to make a champion cheerleader.
It takes flexibility and stability, nerves and abdominal muscles of steel, and dedication and devotion to produce the kind of high-flying routines that 2,500 athletes performed Sunday at the Mid-Atlantic National Cheerleading and Dance Championships, held at the Wildwoods Convention Center.
It also takes encouraging coaches and supportive parents.
“It’s important for kids to be team players,” said Carrie Bosacco, 39, of Cape May Court House, whose daughter, Isadora, 10, is the youngest of the 20 members on the Senior Glory co-ed team from AllStar One gym in Egg Harbor Township. “Being part of a cheer team, you are a team player. It is not an individual sport. If something happens with one person, it affects the whole team.”
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In cheerleading lingo, Isadora Bosacco is a flyer. Her small stature makes her ideal for tossing and catching, something her mother says she loves, although the girl admits she is thinking to herself “Don’t fall” when she’s airborne.
“When you fly, you have to have the utmost trust in your bases,” Carrie Bosacco said of those whose job it is cradle her daughter in outstretched arms and prevent her from crashing onto the mat.
“If you don’t trust them, you’ll be broken,” Isadora Bosacco said.
“We’re all family,” said Kari Jones, 17, of Egg Harbor Township, who has been cheering for 13 years. “We pick each other up. We love one another.”
“We tease each other a lot,” said Abby Guercioni, 16, of Galloway Township, admitting she calls Jackie Pappas, 12, of Egg Harbor Township, “Peebles” after the Flintstone character’s hairdo.
Senior Glory was among the 140 teams of cheerleaders and dancers, ages 3 to 50, who competed during the two-day event that drew participants from as far north as Massachusetts and as far south as Virginia. It also was one of the few teams to have a male, Jordan Yeoman, 16, of Somers Point, among its members.
Karen Brennen, 49, of Northfield, owner of AllStar One gym, brought 13 teams to the competition. She was looking for her premier team, Big Bang, a group of 26 youths ages 12 to 18, to finish among the top two, a showing that would earn each girl $650 toward the World Cheerleading Championships in Orlando, Fla., in April.
With five sets of siblings on various teams, and one family with three siblings competing, that “is worth a lot of money to them,” Brennen said.
For the Deptford Spartans, 17 girls on the junior team ages 10 to 14 and 20 girls on the peewee squad ages 6 to 9, the event represented their first time attending an elite competition.
“They’re having a great time and doing a lot of team-bonding activities” that included pairing older girls with younger ones, said co-head coach Michelle Bostic, 26.
The Fabuloucity All-Stars of Orange, N.J., 50 girls ages 5 to 17 on four different squads, were looking to impress the judges with their tumbling and stunting, said CEO December Moore, 36, of Montclair. Stunting skills include lifts and pyramid building.
Precision, technique, timing and creativity are the main qualities judges value, Moore said, adding her girls had practiced hard and all night long to prepare for Sunday’s second day of competition.
The Wildwoods Convention Center will be the site of another cheer competition next week. The Cheer Tech National Recreation and School Championships will be held beginning at 8 a.m. March 13.
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