The NBCRHS varsity football season may have ended with Thanksgiving Eve’s final win over Pennsville, but the Greyhounds cheerleading squads’ seasons are just starting to heat up.
By:Sean Moylan
The NBCRHS varsity football season may have ended with Thanksgiving Eve’s final win over Pennsville, but the Greyhounds cheerleading squads’ seasons are just starting to heat up.
And on Tuesday night (November 21), at NBCRHS, the NBCRHS varsity and junior varsity cheerleaders, the Jr. Greyhound Cheerleaders Silver Squad (7th and 8th graders) and Blue Squad (5th and 6th graders) and the Jr. Greyhound Cheerleaders competition squad (made up of 5th and 8th graders), all gave thrilling performances at the Pep Rally for the football team.
The Pep Rally was in large part a showcase for the amazing talents of Northern’s cheerleaders, who confidently breezed through a remarkable display of dance routines, cheers, chants, liberty stunts, basket tosses and back tucks.
"It went wonderfully," said Jennifer Malseed who coaches the varsity and J.V. cheerleaders. "Everybody did a great job and everyone was really surprised."
Melissa Malseed, who coaches all of the 5th-8th grade squads, choreographed most of the program herself. Malseed’s National championship competition squad was in fine form – thrilling the capacity crowd with a wonderful and creative routine. But everyone did their job well. The Jr. Greyhound Cheerleaders competition squad is as follows: Brianne Marshall, Lisa Phares, Monique Hopkins, Katie Howeth, Rachel Coleman, Kelly Lukacs, Jessica Small, Stephanie Ellingham, Shara Jordy, Heather Moore, Lyndsay Snyder, Morgan Root, Jen Ramey, Melissa Csontos, Lea Hess, Kayla Pates, Melissa Weaver, Amanda Lach and Amanda Bothwell.
The Jr. Greyhounds competition squad is scheduled to compete at the Americheer Regionals at Lower Cape May High School on Dec. 9. Then on Dec. 10, it is scheduled to compete at the ECA Regionals at Washington Township High School. The Jr. Greyhounds would like nothing more than to repeat as National Champions this year. A win at the ECA Regionals will all but guarantee NBC a trip to Virginia for the finals.
Lyndsay Snyder, Morgan Root, Jen Ramey, Melissa Csontos, Lea Hess, Kayla Pates, Melissa Weaver, Becky Mangus, Erin Kane, Shalynn Skiba, Megan Blanchard, Lisa Phares, Monique Hopkins, Katie Howeth, Rachel Coleman, Kelly Lukacs, Jessica Small, Stephanie Ellingham, Alexis Churchman, Jessica Estock, Diana Alessi and Amanda Lach are the members of the Silver Squad.
Amanda Bothwell, Corrine Wonesh, Rebecca Mason, Shara Jordy, Kate Korson, Jennifer Alessi, Heather Moore, Victoria Mosca, Kayla Ciarrocchi, Victoria Castens, Rachel McIntyre and Alyssa Rittwager are the members of the Blue squad.
The captains of the NBCRHS’s varsity cheerleaders are Kelli Rose, Shawna Nolan, and Christine Castro. The rest of the team is as follows: Vanessa Stoop, Gabi Nelson, Kristin Hoffman, Lauren Vasil, Jennifer Davis, Kimmie Harrington, Abbey Orloski, Krystal Bonfrancesco, Sabrina Aguilar, Devon Jenkins, Shri Dehonyos, Dorothy Koncur, Samantha Thomas and Melissa McChesney.
The J.V. squad is as follows: Heather Dries, Brianna Marshall, Jessica Morris, Stephanie Yared, Stephanie Morrison, Ashley Lebak, Keri Neidt, Ashley Rose, Laura Grierman and Amanda Hill.
Varsity cheerleader Melissa McChesney, a freshman, is actually scheduled to cheer at the upcoming Pro Bowl in Hawaii.
Ashley Lebak, Christine Casro, Abbey Orloski and Sheri Dehonyos were also selected as All-American cheerleaders but they, most likely, will choose not to perform at the Pro Bowl.
Recently, the Northern cheerleaders lost their practice space and they are currently looking for a new one. Also, competitions are very expensive and if the Jr. Greyhounds competition squad hopes to remain champions it will need to receive donations in a hurry – especially when its time to go to Virginia. Anyone who is interested in making a donation or has a practice space in mind for the squads can contact Dawn Ellingham at 894-0235 or edndawn@earthlink.net.
Cheerleaders are athletes and programs like the one run at Northern last Tuesday take a tremendous amount of time, work and money to put together. Eventually the varsity cheerleaders would also like to put together a competition squad – but that proposition will depend heavily on whether or not they can get the proper funding.
