This Saturday the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School football team takes to their home field to battle the Nantucket Whalers for the 36th Island Cup. The team prepares to defend the title they’ve held for the last 10 years while another team is practicing just as hard to help them win — the MVRHS cheerleaders.
Earlier this week I stopped by the high school gymnasium to catch the end of cheerleading practice and to meet with the girls behind the pom poms. I’m not one to be choreographed and I have limited coordination, so I was immediately impressed by what I saw. The girls’ formations were sharp and tight and they never once stopped smiling. They looked good and ready.
Led by coaches Sue Costello and Channon Capra, the cheerleading team is made up of 10 girls, including one senior and two members new to the sport. The team practices four days a week on top of attending all football games, including those off Island. They unanimously agreed that they enjoy traveling and particularly appreciated their trip to Bedford for the season opener, where they stayed at a local hotel and attended a Endicott College vs. Framingham State game to watch collegiate cheerleaders in action.
Lining the sidelines each week, the cheerleaders provide support for the football team and entertainment for the crowd, executing up to 30 cheers per game.
When asked how she builds routines, Coach Capra told the Times she takes an athletic approach. “We like to include a lot of quick transitions and line formation changes,” she said. “We’re always looking to be creative and catch the eye. Halftime shows are their real, real competition and they put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform well.”
Coach Costello added that, given a diverse audience, “we like to provide something for everyone.” That includes pom dances after touchdowns, pike jumps during time-outs, and participatory call back cheers in between.
The team approaches their sport seriously, and they have been working hard since August. After returning from a program hiatus last year, the team was re-formed by member sign-ups and welcomes anyone interested in participating. Even though tryouts weren’t necessary, hard work and determination were, and the team has been eager to establish themselves and prove their abilities.
The program is back on track and it shows. Junior Oshantay Waite, who previously cheered in Jamaica before moving to the Vineyard, sensed a turning point in the team last week as they cheered the Vineyarders to a shutout victory against Bellingham.
“When I got home from the game I was still smiling,” she said. “Everything was good, the crowd was loud and we felt so confident. Parents were complimenting us on how we looked and it felt really good to have people recognize that it takes a lot of work.”
Team member Kayla Oliver reminisced about when the team lifted their first stunt earlier in the season. “It was a really good feeling of accomplishment,” she said. “We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’re getting there and we have the potential to be a competitive team.”
In addition to their work on the field, the cheerleaders show support before each game by arriving early to decorate the stands. This week they’ll take it even farther by decorating the homes of the senior football players and the route from the ferry terminal to the high school, to build anticipation for the game.
As the season draws to a close, the girls look back fondly on their experiences, including team building exercises off the field — a pool party, spa day, and movie night. They offer up why they joined in the first place, citing college applications, the love of cheerleading and staying physically fit, among others. But it seems some of their biggest rewards have arrived in the form of friendship and teamwork. Coach Capra said she noticed this teamwork at the beginning of the season when team members went out of their way to assist each other, going back to repeat exercises if someone was struggling. “That’s when I knew they really cared about each other and we had a solid group of girls here,” she said.
If you make it to the game this weekend be sure to give them some extra attention.
“Feel the rumble, feel the quake. ‘Cause MVRHS is gonna make you shake!”
