THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 25, 1996 TAG: 9603240283
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Long : 178 lines
Such a cheerful place over the weekend.
Give me a P. . . Plenty of flippy pleated skirts, bobby socks and Vaseline-enhanced smiles.
Give me an E. . . Eastern Cheerleading Championships, Saturday and Sunday at William & Mary Hall.
Give me an R. . . Rollers. Pink, foam hair rollers that made all those short ponytails curly, curly, curly.
Give me a K. . . Kids. A few thousand girls, a handful of boys from 14 states.
Give me a Y. . . Yelling. All those kids screaming, chanting and lip-synching.
Whatta ya got?. . . . PERKY! In a competition where 15 percent of the score is for ``spirit and enthusiasm,'' woe to the squad which didn't heed the No. 1 rule: ``Be of good cheer.''
THE WOODSTOCK STEELERS from Virginia Beach were of pretty good cheer. They came into the championships bearing a state title and one of the biggest squads: 35 girls and one boy, ages 8 to 12.
``We just need personality and smiles. We're not too good on smiles,'' said 10-year-old Jessika Moniz, self-appointed squad spokescheerer, as the Steelers cartwheeled and romped on the grass outside William & Mary Hall.
``I have personality. Lots of people have personality. They just don't want to show it.''
There were three other things the Steelers were missing Saturday morning: two cheerleaders and a coach. Jessika didn't seem concerned, but the parents and other coaches were getting nervous as the time approached to check in for the competition. The whole squad had to check in and enter the building at the same time. Otherwise, forfeit.
The Steelers hadn't worked for months to get to the finals and then forfeit. The missing coach finally came hurrying up the sidewalk. Her preschool daughter, a team mascot, had vomited on herself at the hotel and had had to be scrubbed down and re-clothed.
Then the last two girls appeared, three minutes before check-in time. The squad moved toward the door.
``This is so stressful for me,'' said parent Cathy Nunnally, watching her 10-year-old daughter, Brittany, bounced perkily up the stairs. ``I may not even watch it.''
The Eastern Cheerleading Cham-pionships encompassed all types of squads, from high-school varsity to grade-school recreation league. They came from as far as Minnesota and Florida to perform two-minute-and-30-second routines of dance, stunts and chants. In that short time, individuals competed for scholarships and teams competed for trophies, ribbons and invitations to perform at the Cotton Bowl, Hula Bowl and other big-time sporting events.
Cheerleaders and sports fit together better than most people realize. Competition cheerleading, with its human pyramids and girls being flung into the air, has a higher injury rate than football.
The danger level of the stunts, paired with the lack of protective gear, means that split-second timing and strong arms are essential. During the championships, an ambulance stood by outside William & Mary Hall. It was needed.
A junior-division cheerleader from Nelsonville, Ohio, failed to complete a flip and smashed her forehead into the floor mat. Her head snapped back; she rolled to her back, clutching her neck.
Cathy Nunnally won't let Brittany be a ``flier,'' one of the girls who get tossed in the air. ``She's the only daughter I've got,'' Nunnally said. She sat in the stands, watching medics test the feeling in the injured cheerleader's feet.
Twenty minutes later, the girl was wheeled out in a neck brace, head immobilizer and backboard. The crowd rose and cheered.
Sitting in the stands, the Steelers tried not to let the accident get them nervous. For the most part, they succeeded.
And that's not easy, with a squad of elementary and middle-schoolers, all making their first trip to a national-level championship.
The Woodstock Steelers began the cheering season last fall as a recreation-league squad. They won first place in November's state competition, in the youth all-star division, and earned a spot in Williamsburg. The rec league couldn't sponsor them this far, so they came on their own, although their burgundy-and-yellow uniforms still bore the letters WRL.
The all-star division is for rec-league or independent squads that have members from more than one school. The Steelers were up against eight other squads from five states in Saturday's qualifying competition. By virtue of being a state titleholder, Woodstock was already guaranteed a spot in Sunday's finals.
The Virginia Beach squad counted themselves fortunate in more ways than one. Saturday was a school makeup day for most Beach students, and here they were in Williamsburg.
The Steelers had been practic-ing their routine two or three nights a week since January. It would open, as would an ear-exhausting number of other squads' routines, with the fast-paced music of ``Mortal Kombat.'' The hardest stunt would come in the early moments, when four girls would fling another cheerleader in the air in a ``basket toss,'' then - if all went well - catch her before she hit the ground.
``TIGHTEN! TIGHTEN UP THAT LINE!'' the Steelers would chant, clapping in unison.
``Forget it!'' would shout Adam Staton, the sole boy on the squad, and the Steelers would join in with ``BACK UP! STAND CLEAR! THIS IS OUR YEAR!''
Then Michael Jackson's ``Scream'' would come up, and the Steelers would begin the Tootsie Roll, a leg-wobbling dance routine.
Did Jessika know the words to ``Scream?''
``Only a couple.''
But the words weren't important, as long as 36 kids could scream ``Tighten up that line'' and smile at the same time.
They fidgeted in their seats while the other junior-level cheerleading squads - there were 57 competing - marched one by one into the ready area, bobbed out onto the floor, ran through their routines, then scampered back off.
All around the stands, cheerleaders from other states were helping each other remove pink rollers, affix a few errant strands with hairspray, and pat down those flippy pleated skirts. A few squads even used hairspray to stick glitter in their hair and around their eyes.
Cathy Nunnally looked disapproving. We don't, she said, encourage our girls to wear makeup.
Out on the floor, the stunts were getting more and more spectacular. One after another, a muscled boy - the ``base'' - would lift a petite ``flier,'' and she would balance, one foot in his upraised hand, holding the other foot up behind her.
Basket-tossed girls did Russian splits or double-twists in the air before landing. Some squads opened their routines with tumbling runs.
One base staggered, and the basket tossee hit the floor, hard, with her tailbone. She left the arena in tears.
Tears are not perky. Head bobs are perky. Older, more experienced squads took the floor and head-bobbed the crowd on each side while waiting for their music to start. Some bobs, unfortunately, took on the appearance of nervous tics, at odds with the perky smiles.
The Woodstock Steelers were not experienced enough to have perfected the head bob. But they had the walk, the heel-to-toe rock that put the flip in those short-short skirts. And they had the jauntiness that made their ponytails swing.
As they perked out in front of the judges, some of them even skipped.
``READY!'' shouted Monique Macaluso from the front row. Up came ``Mortal Kombat.''
``FORGET IT!'' screamed the Steelers. ``THIS IS OUR YEAR! YOU DON'T STAND A CHANCE!''
Two minutes and 30 seconds in the limelight, and then off.
``How'd they look?'' Nunnally asked, coming out from behind her camera.
Jessika was feeling goooood. ``I feel like we really did accomplish something,'' she said cheerfully. ``The thought of the person who fell was pretty scary. That just kinda freaked us out.
``When you first go up you have butterflies in your stomach and you feel like you're gonna throw up or something but when you hear the crowd, that's comfort.''
At last, the announcer sum-moned all junior and youth division squads to the floor. The Steelers were confident.
But all three trophies and four honorable mentions went to other youth all-star squads. Woodstock was shut out of the youth all-star category. Stunned disbelief replaced perkiness.
Coach Julie Macaluso brought the Steelers back to the stands. ``Do not let this get you down,'' she told them. ``You guys were champions while you were out there. Everybody keep your chin up. You still have tomorrow.''
Sunday, when the No. 1 rule would again be in effect: Be of good cheer.
Postscript: Sunday's results were again disappointing for the Steelers. The Virginia Beach team again failed to place.
The winning teams in their division, youth all-stars were:
Saturday: Rockaway, of Rockaway, N.J.
Sunday: Cheer Explosion, of Brunswick, Ohio.
Also, the Nelsonville, Ohio, cheerleader who was hospitalized on Saturday suffered only a sprained neck. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
Right: a teammate removes Monique Mascaluso's curlers as the
Woodstock Steelers, of Virginia Beach, await the start of the
Eastern Cheerleading Championships.
RIGHT: Lauren Burroughs, 11 team "flier" for the Steelers, practices
on Saturday.
B\W photo
Members of the Woodstock Steelers perform during the Eastern
Cheerleading Championships Saturday at William & Mary Hall.
Steelers Rachael Dutton and Adam Staton peek at soon-to-be awarded
trophies. Teams from 14 states were entered.
by CNB