Can you think of a team that has won twenty-six championships consecutively? Not the Yankees, not the Jets, or the Rangers have this record. There is only one team who has reached this goal, and that is the Saint Joseph by- the-Sea Varsity Cheerleading team. Keeping the tradition is one of the team’s main goals.
“The LegaSEA has been going on for twenty-six years,” senior Bernedette Sullivan said, “and will continue forever.”
Many people argue that cheerleading is not a sport, but the varsity team practiced up to six days a week for eleven months of the year. It took a great deal of time to create their routines,
learn them and then move as one unit. Along with their strenuous practices, the team also took a tumbling class in New Jersey and cheered at all of the basketball games.
“We work very hard all year long,” sophomore Jillian Wald said, “but in the end it pays off.”
The team competed in four major competitions throughout their season: Regionals, Nationals, CSI (the Island competition) and Fordham (the state competition). This year the girls placed first at Regionals and seventh in the National Competition in Orlando, Florida.
“I love the feeling when I compete and I love showing off the routine to all the fans that have been waiting all year to see us,” junior Lauren Scadiffi said. “The feeling of winning is like no other feeling in the world.”
Besides skill, vocal techniques and flexibility, Cheerleading takes a great deal of hard work and dedication.