High flying cheerleaders take center stage at showcase

Hundreds of cheerleaders from the region jumped, tumbled and flew through the air during a cheerleading showcase held by the Wareham Tigers Cheer Athletics organization.

The showcase, held Saturday, Nov. 16 at the Wareham High School gymnasium gave cheerleading programs from Wareham, Carver, Plymouth and Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School the chance to show the community what they have been working on, according to Damon Solomon, Wareham Tigers Cheerleading Association President.

"We want to bring awareness to our local cheer talent," said Solomon. "This sport is probably one of the most physically demanding sports you can do and we wanted to make sure other programs were here because cheer is so underrepresented."

Solomon, a 21-year veteran of the Army and former football coach said his daughter was a cheerleader and he fell in love with the sport due to the athleticism required. He believes cheerleaders are "the hardest working athletes [he's] seen."

In total, over 260 cheerleaders across 15 teams put on two to three minute cheerleading performances where athletes performed gymnastic routines choreographed to music for the over 700 people in attendance.

The cheerleaders ranged in age from four-year-old beginners to 18-year-old seniors in high school.

In Wareham, youth cheerleading is conducted by two organizations, the Wareham Tigers Cheer Athletics organization and The Wareham Tigers Athletics Association, both of which were present at the showcase. The Wareham Tigers Cheer Athletics organization is focused on year round, competitive cheerleading while the Wareham Tigers Athletics Association prioritizes sideline cheerleading during the football season.

Four teams from the Wareham Tigers Cheer Athletics organization performed on Saturday, team Empower, ages four to seven, team Spirit, ages 12 and under, team Pride, ages 14 and under and team Inspire, ages 18 and under. The teams from the Wareham Tigers Athletics Association were made up of athletes aged 5 to 15-years-old with teams named the Mites, Pee Wees and Midgets. Also performing was the Wareham High School Varsity Cheerleaders.

The showcase also included five teams from Carver, a team from Plymouth and a team from Upper Cape.

15-year-old Lydia Kirkland and 16 year-old Amaya Burton cheer with several of the Wareham Tigers Cheer Athletics teams and they described the showcase as "awesome and amazing" and they thought everyone did "fantastic" in their first showcase of the season.

Leading up to the showcase, Burton explained they have been putting in many hours of hard work to prepare by "drilling everything like stunts, tumbling and full outs over and over again every week."

Burton and Kirkland are not only cheerleaders themselves but they also help coach the younger cheerleaders in Wareham.

"It feels so good to have a whole team look up to me and then they watch me perform and I get to watch them do amazing," said Burton.

Burton continued saying some of the biggest lessons she has learned from cheerleading is to "really push your body when things get hard" while coaching younger athletes has helped teach her patience.

Kassondra Ieronimo's daughter Kaylee cheers with the Wareham Tigers Cheer Athletics organization Pride and Inspire teams and she said she "loves absolutely everything about the showcase."

"[My daughter] has a different confidence on stage," said Ieronimo. "She's learning how to be a team player and take accountability and responsibility."

Solomon added all the cheerleading programs present seek to teach their athletes a variety of lessons that they can carry with them not only in cheerleading but in life.

"We teach the athletes to support the community as a whole," said Solomon. "Everybody was cheering for everybody. It's not one side versus another. We instill these values because it's not just in cheerleading but in life because everyone has differences and it's important to support each other no matter what."

After the last performance, each team selected individuals to participate in the jumping and tumbling contests where athletes jumped and did a variety of acrobatic moves at three different ability levels per competition. Wareham athletes won four of the six competitions.

After the high flying stunts were done, there was a competition among the moms and dads of the athletes to see who could do the best jump before the athletes broke into a dance party to conclude the showcase.