On Nov. 2, the Malverne High School Varsity Cheer team competed in the Nassau County Championship at Farmingdale State College. The team won the Section 8 Nassau County Gameday Cheer Championship.
This allowed the team the opportunity to compete at the New York State Championships in Troy, NY on Nov. 9.
“We are very grateful and appreciative of this,” Coach Nesha Sands, who has been with Malverne since 2016, said. “We started competing in 2017 and we were just kind of thrown into the competitive world, but year after year we’ve improved.”
After qualifying for the county championships three previous years, this is the first time the team has won the title.
“It literally brought tears to my eyes because we worked so hard,” co-captain Coralie Mitton, 17, said.
“Every year we’re kind of rebuilding new bonds with new teammates, from rookies to people who have never been on the team before, but the season helps us connect even more,” Mitton, a senior, added. “We work so hard and it finally shows in our scores.”
“We fought very hard and there were lots of obstacles we overcame,” senior co-captain Makiyah Harris, 17, said. “We showed everybody that we can really get through challenges and showed them what’s possible.”
Competing in the Gameday Cheer competition, the team had to showcase two cheers, a situational cheer, which cheers on the offense or defense positions, and a team cheer, representing the school. They are also judged based on their dance choreography, performance, and stunting.
“With the team being relatively new, it was hard in the beginning,” sophomore co-captain Angelina Williams, 15, said. “Not everyone knew the jumps or how to count, how to hit their motion tight. But seeing everybody grow was really nice.”
“This is everyone’s first time going to states and I think it’s a really good experience for the team,” Williams added.
Though the Malverne Cheer team did not make it to the final round at the state level, the new experience was inspiring for the team.
“No matter our placement upstate, I’m happy because I know our whole team will learn while we’re there,” Mitton said. “We’ll come back stronger and harder every year.”
“I’m so proud of our team,” Harris added. “We have a lot of new people learning a lot of new things, and we accomplished something our school hasn’t yet.”
“I’m happy Malverne is finally able to show what we’re made of,” Coach Danielle Hinds, who joined the team in 2017, said. “We’ve been the underdog for a very long time. We don’t have girls who are trained in cheerleading, freshman year they step into the gym with no experience and we’re able to build them into something great. So I’m proud of how far they’ve come from the beginning to the very end.”
Show your support for the Malverne Cheer team by attending the cheer competition being at Malverne High School on Jan. 24.
