By Grace Ruthe
Correspondent
The College’s Cheer and Dance Teams work hard at maintaining school spirit. Dressed in blue and gold while engaging the crowd to root for the Lions, both teams can be found at a number of community events, football games and men’s and women’s basketball games. They also show their talent at the Collegiate National level to bring medals and trophies back to Ewing.
“It is always fun to get the crowd engaged with us,” said Jordan Todaro, a senior psychology and early childhood urban education major, who is also a co-president of the College’s Cheer Team. “I love it.”
Michelle Zeron, a senior communications major and co-president of the cheer team described the team as “very welcoming.”
“It made me feel like a part of a family,” Zeron added.
Cheerleading has taught Zeron many important lessons throughout her time on the team — namely, it has allowed her to become involved with the College community as a leader.
The College’s Dance Team has had a similar duty to uphold school spirit alongside the cheer team since its establishment in 1998.
Alex Copeland, a sophomore psychology major and teaming bonding chair for the Dance Team, enjoys how games and community events give the team an opportunity to try new styles and perform in front of a crowd.
“We only do pom and jazz, so doing hip hop and up-beat jazz was so fun,” Copeland said.
Marielle Ibarreta, a freshman nursing major on the Dance Team, said the team has given her the opportunity to get involved with the school and meet people she has grown to look up to.
The College’s Dance and Cheer teams are made up of dedicated members — each team practices three to four times a week, and switches into full gear during nationals season, with days sometimes filled with two practices each.
“You can’t get by if you’re not pushing yourself 100 percent,” Copeland said.
Both the College’s cheerleaders and dancers traveled down to Orlando, FL. to compete in Varsity Spirit’s Universal Dance and Cheer Alliance National Championships from January 14 to 16. Their winter breaks are filled with practices and preparation for the big competition that takes place in mid-January each year.
The Cheer Team competes in the All Girls Open Category with one routine, according to Zeron. The division consists of mostly D3 and community college teams with about 18 to 20 girls on the mat at a time. At the 2022 UCA National Championships, the College’s Cheer team placed second in their division, securing silver medals to bring home.
“You can just feel that support once we were down there,” Todaro said, recalling her nationals experience.
The College’s Dance Team competes in Gameday, Pom and Jazz under the open category — which is notably larger than D1 and D1A, making the pool of competitors even larger. The girls pulled out all the stops, receiving fourth place in Open Gameday, sixth place in Open Pom and 10th place in Open Jazz at the 2022 championship.
“Our team dynamic is very good and we’re very supportive of each other,” Copeland said, describing nationals as an uplifting experience.
Ibarreta said that nationals gave the team an opportunity to show off all the hard work they had been putting in. Although preparation was tough, she believes it was worth it.
Along with many other collegiate athletics and organizations, both the College’s Cheer and Dance teams ran into some struggles during the pandemic — there were no practices and all meetings and team bonding events were virtual.
“I felt like I was missing out on it especially because I wasn’t here at school either,” said Copeland.
Ibarreta said that her dance career was impacted by Covid-19 during her final years of high school. The College’s Dance Team gave her an opportunity to get back into dancing full time, she said.
Zeron credited her coaches with attempting to make the season go as smoothly as possible.
“I’m so thankful to our coaches because they made everything as normal as it could be.” She said. “Without them, I don’t think this season would be possible.”
