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ALLENTOWN: Three cheers for Redbirds Pop Warner cheerleaders

Junior Pee Wee team of 8 to 10-year-olds places third in nation

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
   ALLENTOWN — The Redbird Pop Warner Cheerleading program has something else to shout about now that the 8 to 10-year-old girls on its Junior Pee Wee team have won third place at the national championships in Florida.
   The fact that seven of the 20 girls on the team had never even competed before this year made the accomplishment at championships even more remarkable, head coach Jodi Stewart said Monday.
   ”I’m so proud of all the girls,” Ms. Stewart said. “They all worked very hard and had a great season. They were dedicated, and they deserved the chance to compete on the national stage.”
   The National Pop Warner Cheer & Dance Championships were held Dec.1 through Dec. 8 at ESPN’s “Wide World of Sports” inside the Disney World resort in Orlando. More than 300 teams competed in four different age ranges (Junior Pee Wee, Pee Wee, Junior Midget and Midget).
   The Redbirds Junior Pee Wee girls were up against 102 other cheerleading teams in their age group and, after giving one of their finest performances of the season, were awarded the third-place trophy Dec. 3.
   Although the age range in the Junior Pee Wee division is 8 to 11 years old, all of the Redbirds cheerleaders are 10 or younger. Many of the teams the girls competed against had older cheerleaders with much more competition experience.
   Ms. Stewart said Monday the team is extremely grateful to residents and businesses of Allentown, Upper Freehold and surrounding communities who have supported the girls’ various fundraisers throughout the year in order to help defray the team’s competition-related expenses.
   The girls on this “well-oiled cheer machine” put the word team in teamwork, Ms. Stewart said. They won the first of three regional competitions Oct. 20 when they took home the first-place trophy for the second year in a row at the Central Jersey Pop Warner Cheer Competition at the Sun National Bank Arena in Trenton.
   Two weeks later, the Redbird Junior Pee Wee team was ranked No. 1 in points in the qualifier competition and moved on to an extraordinary first-place finish at the Eastern Region Cheer & Dance Competition on Nov. 17.
   This is the second Allentown Redbird Pop Warner cheerleading team to do well in a national cheerleading championship. The older girls on the Junior Midget team (ages 11 to 13) won second-place trophies in 2011 and 2010 in Orlando, but didn’t make the trip to the national championship this year.
   The members of the 2012 Allentown Redbirds Junior Pee cheer team are: Margaret Bardwil. Carly Byrne, Samantha Cier, Peyton Clark, Madison Hill, Cheyenne Kramer, Taylor LeBlanc, Juliana Matwiow. Mackenna McLaughlin, Anna Nolan, Emily Nolan, Maggie Nolan, Hanna Paldino, Katherine Rudin, Brianna Samuels, Cira Shaw, Ashley Smires, Reagan Stewart, Riley Stewart, Madison Wade and junior coach Mikayla Storey.
   The team’s adult coaching staff includes head coach Jodi Stewart and assistant coaches Bernadette Nolan, Jenn Matwiow and Donna Clark.