By Lauren Kirchmyer
Being a cheerleader involves more than simply pumping up crowds at games. It takes athleticism, teamwork, dedication and hard work to make the tumbling, routines and cheers look effortless.
This season, both West Seneca East and West Senior High Schools proved how working hard and working together can bring great success.
The 2016-17 season was a new year for East’s cheerleaders as they had a new coach, Sarah Stanley. Though she is not new to coaching – she is a former all-star program coach and tumbling teacher – taking on a new team could be a challenging transition.
New leadership only made the team work harder. At their first two competitions this season, the Quaker Challenge at Orchard Park High School and the Winter Cheer Challenge at North Tonawanda High School, the team won and were named grand champions. They also won at ECIC’s at Clarence High School.
“My favorite part about coaching the girls was watching them grow and develop not only as athletes but as individuals,” Stanley said. “There is nothing more satisfying to me than seeing their happiness from knowing all of their hard work has paid off.”
East made their way to sectionals and were thrilled to win again, qualifying to compete at states in Syracuse, where they won second place out of 21 teams.
“I’m most proud of my team for the dedication and hard work they have shown this season,” Stanley said. “They pushed themselves to their limits to reach their full potential at West Seneca East.”
At West Senior, the team was in the hands of Stephanie Babcock. The West alum, who cheered all four years of high school, came on as the assistant JV coach in 2009-10 before taking over as JV coach in 2010-11. The following school year she was promoted to varsity.
The team has found major success since Babcock was named varsity coach including three fall ECIC titles (2013, 2014, 2016), five winter ECIC titles (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), two Division 1 Section VI titles (2016, 2017) and one national title (2014).
This year alone the team won ECIC in the fall and winter, took first place/grand champions at two local competitions and took first place for the Section VI Division 1 Small Division. At states in Syracuse, the team took seventh place of 10 teams in the Division 1 Small Division. The team was one of the only teams from Western New York that qualified for an international competition at Disney World and was named a scholar athlete team for both the fall and winter seasons.
“A lot of teams can be champions, a lot of teams can earn trophies, but when I am told they excel in school and are great students, that’s when I feel proud,” Babcock said. “When I am told by other cheer coaches and other programs that my girls stood out for how kind they are and how they show great sportsmanship, that’s when I’m proud. When the girls use their own free time to improve their skills to earn their titles, that’s when I’m proud. Training great athletes is a passion of mine but helping them become good people is my proudest accomplishment.”
What’s more impressive than the success these teams had this year is the support they had for one another and the Western New York cheer community. Outside of cheering for their cross-town team – “Indians and Trojans, West Seneca is best. Yeah, that’s right, no contest!” – the teams have been getting close to teams from neighboring districts as a way to help build better sportsmanship.
“The support for each other in the cheer community seems to have grown from realizing that Section Six New York State cheerleading will be stronger as a whole rather than separate entities,” Stanley said.
“We want to see our section succeed at a state level as much as we want to see our own teams succeed,” Babcock added.
