Alhambra Cheerleaders Take Second in Nationals

Hanging out with a gaggle of girls can blow up catastrophically or it can be a blast. It turns out the Alhambra Competition Cheer Squad is a blast because the girls are vibrant bundles of energy – especially after eating! – and that spills over to those around them.

You learn a lot about them quickly because they know each other so well. You know who’s the clumsiest and who curses too much. You learn they wish their parents’ wouldn’t smoke and they love their baby brothers. You learn who eats the most and who shouldn’t eat lettuce. And you learn they can sing like a glee club.

After a couple of normal days in their space, you almost forget they are strong athletes and skilled performers, but they remind you. “People don’t know it’s blood, sweat and tears at every practice,” freshman Tori Carozza said.

People also might not realize how nerve-wracking performace day is, when you’re about to face the judges. Veteran squad member Mariah Pergakis, a junior, said it’s a scary day.

“You get butterflies,” senior Coco Carozza chimed in.

Then, they said, you go into the auditorium, hit the mats and quickly adjust to the bright lights. Soon you enter “the zone” and everything clicks – you hope. That’s when all that practice, all the blood, sweat and tears, will pay off.

As they waited, first for their official practice time on the mats, then for their performance time, you could see some stress on a face or two, particularly the first-timers, but as a team they showed nerves of steel. They practiced well and performed even better.

Then they exited the auditorium and the steel bent. Tears flowed. Self-critiques were harsh; one was sure she’d missed her marks and was sure she’d ruined the whole thing for everyone. (She hadn’t.) Seniors, who had been coming to grips all weekend with this being their last competition, could no longer keep from crying.

Crying for girls this close is a lot like yawning for the general population. So a five-minute cryfest released the tension that had built before the performance, that had perhaps been building since they packed up for the bus ride down.

Good thing for the release because room was needed for new tension, tension caused by waiting. The team and the coaches don’t get that instant gratification that most athletes get when they put a ball through a net. They don’t even get the satisfaction of knowing the skaters and gymnast get by at least learning their own scores.

They don’t know right away whether they are ahead or behind. And even if they did, there isn’t a chance to come back from behind. To get to finals, it’s a one-shot game with no do-overs. And Alhambra’s relatively early performance gave the team nearly a four-hour wait time before they would know if they could return tomorrow and do it all over again. Just after 3 p.m. Saturday, they learned they had come in second and would indeed compete Sunday for the United Spirit Association’s national title. Go, bulldogs!