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Sports

Montville Cheerleaders Best In ECC

Indians Win Medium Division Title With Top Score In Championship Meet

Melissa Hebert vowed to turn Montville High cheerleading into a championship competition squad when she took over the program in the middle of the 2008-09 season.

The coach fulfilled her promises ahead of schedule. The Indians won the Eastern Connecticut Conference Medium championship in 2010. This year, not only did Montville repeat in the Medium, it registered the highest score (152 points) of all 16 conference teams Saturday in the annual ECC Cheerleading Championship at NFA.

"We are thrilled with our performance and placement and were very excited to have the top score in the entire ECC," Hebert said. "We have really stepped up our program over the last year, have worked hard and it paid off in the end."

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Hebert, a '05 Montville grad and cheerleader, changed the culture of the program, instilling a competitive focus for championship 150-second routines of cheers, pyramid building, gymnastics and dancing. Hebert, who performs on an elite hip hop dance team and is a staff member for New England Cheerleading Association, was joined this season by '03 MHS grad Theresa Quibble as assistant coach.

"We’re here to make a statement that cheerleading is a sport," Hebert said. "We can lead our crowd into cheering on our teams and keeping up school spirit, but there is much more to it than that. The team trains during practice and some even train in all star cheerleading and dance programs. It’s more than the skirts and pom pons.  Cheerleading requires a great deal of athleticism, dedication, trust, discipline and most of all, teamwork."

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As a dress rehearsal for the ECCs, Montville took first in Compete For a Cure St. Jude's in Torrington the night before.

"Getting the nerves out before the ECCs was definitely beneficial," Hebert said.

But the Indians drew the last competition slot, forcing the team to wait two hours in an auxiliary gym before performing in front of the 1,000 fans at Norwich Free Academy's Alumni Gym. If the Indians were pacing around, sweating out the idle time, they didn't show it once they hit the floor.

The cheers were choreographed, the tumbling crisp and the pyramid lifts steady. Montville's team of 23 was able to erect four pyramid towers compared to most team's three. Unlike other sports that include a schedule of contests, the ECC Championships are the only cheerleading competition, putting a premium of pressure of the 150-second routine.

"This is an amazing group of athletes who have grown together and believe in each other and for that, I couldn't be more proud," Hebert said.

Members of the team include: Taryssa Bogan, Emma Bollinger, CC Claudelli, Chanel Demers, Cassie Dole, Courtney Duff, Brooke Durrett, Heather Houston, Taylor MacCracken, Caitlyn Marsh, Taylor McDonald, Brittany McGrath, Alexi McNair, Andrea Mertz, Katherine Namin, Caitlyn Perkins, Serena Petrowski, Arieanna Ramos, Heather Reeves, Kayla Simon, Angelina Vasington and Kellie Wong.The girls scored a total of 152 points, overall the highest score of the day.

Simon and Wong, seniors, joined Iaconiello, a freshman, as ECC All-Stars. Sophomores Bogan and MacCracken were Honorable Mention picks. 
Montville will continue its competition schedule at the CIAC Class M state championships next week.

 

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