Brick Dragons Midget Dance and Cheer teams are slated to step into the spotlight at the Pop Warner National Championships on Dec. 10 and Dec. 11 near Orlando, Fla.
Midget Dance head coach Cathy Lindenbaum and her four assistant coaches were scheduled to leave on Monday night and the 13 girls on Tuesday morning. They will compete today at 5:30 p.m. at the Disney Wide World of Sports in Walt Disney World. Lindenbaum’s assistants include her daughter Nicole Lindenbaum, Lori Mazza, Joanne Papandrea and Holly Gerinmo.
Many of the girls were on last year’s Dragons Junior Midget national champs team, which won the Spirit of Sportsmanship award last December.
“Practices are going good,” Lindenbaum said. “The girls are doing good and expected to do a good job in Florida.”
Midget Cheer coach Lori High-Martucci and her six assistants were scheduled to leave on Tuesday night and the 35 girls the following morning. They’ll compete on Friday at 3 p.m. The Midget Cheer assistant coaches are Amy Giusto, Daniella Giusto, Mary Anderson, Jackie Stiehl, Suzanne Puff and Maura Gallagher.
“We added a few things in our routine and were able the past couple of weeks, with a full team, to work very hard and clean up what we had and made it stronger,” High-Martucci said.
Her team had to make some lastminute adjustments in the regionals last month when one member of the team was out with the flu.
“When that happened, the girls rose to the occasion, but everyone is back now,” she said.