Do you know what it takes to become an award winning team? EHHS Cheer team knows! On February 1st, our EHHS cheer team tied North Haven High School for first place in the Southern Connecticut Conference (SCCs) competition. The SCCs is a competition held at North Haven High School, holding all of the cheer teams in the Southern Connecticut area. The EHHS cheerleaders emphasized a need for discipline and determination. On the outside the competition seemed to only take up a day of the team’s time, but after exploring the team the behind the scenes is much more than people may think.
While the biggest team accomplishment is winning SCCs, the cheerleaders could win an award called All-SCC. To become a member of All SCC, your coach has to nominate you, and then you go against all the girls in the conference who have been nominated and get judged. The top 20 highest scorers are picked for all SCC. All-SCC senior Gianna Tullo told us about the practice that goes into this achievement, “Too much [practice]. But it’s all worth it in the end. Like, I mean, you put in a lot. You’re really tired”.
The physical strain is a lot, but the mental challenges are a struggle. All-SCC junior Gianna Perciballi told us her biggest challenge when striving towards All SCC and SCC champions, “Probably just the stress of it all. It is a highly stressful time of the year because all this good stuff is going for you. And obviously you don’t want to mess it up”. When asked how she handles these challenges, Gianna said, “Just trusting my abilities and my skills and remembering my training from all star.” Gianna did All Star cheerleading for eight years, which is a highly competitive level of cheer, with much more commitment and practice. Gianna credited All Star Cheer for teaching her everything she knows, “That’s where I learned basically all my skills.” But while physicality is important, Gianna knows that a good mental state will make or break you, “It’s definitely a very mental sport. It’s more mental than physical. So, I think mind over matter most of the time, and it’s 97% mental, and the rest physical. If you could put your mind to it then you can do it.” These mental blocks are especially challenging when you put yourself to a higher standard.
Senior Kolbey Nastri has been a member of All State and All SCC each year of high school so far, “I’ve been going for all SCC since I was a freshman and I got it every year. So I think, having the experience and getting it every other year made me confident for my last year and that really helped”. While the experience adds confidence, it also has disadvantages: “Once you get All state or All SCC, people expect that of you. So, like, the pressures there all the time. You put yourself to a higher standard and it’s really stressful”.
Both seniors, Gianna Tullo and Kolbey, had a similar answer when asked about their most memorable moment of their cheer careers. Gianna Tullo told us her favorite memory was “Winning SCCS my senior year with my favorite team. I finally did it my senior year! Perfect way to end it.” We also asked Kolbey about her favorite memory, “Probably winning SCCs this year. Freshman year we were okay, we got second. And then we got twelfth. And then last year we got ninth. But this year we did it.” While it was their favorite memory, the SCC competition is not the end of the season for the girls. They have State Championships this weekend in Trumbull where they hope to beat everyone in their class to win it all!
