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Despite having few members and an early starts, the Athletic Spirit League has invigorated the school with renewed energy.
Cheer
After losing eleven graduating seniors Lowell Cheer is back and hoping to elevate the team to national contenders once again. The eleven veteran cheerleaders have been training recruits all summer as the seven new varsity cheerleaders will need practice to gain experience. “I was nervous joining the team being a newbie, but all the girls have been really supportive and helpful,” junior Ondina Lipney-Burger said. “They’ve made me feel like part of the team.”
Since the beginning of summer, the squad has trained three times a week with coach Luke Dela Calzada and assistant coaches Stephanie Arellano and Polian Mac. The cheerleaders gave a spirited preview of a few routines at freshman orientation. “Orientation was exciting because it was the new girls’ first performance, even though we had to learn to work with our small number in performance,” junior Mackenzie Foley said. They are currently preparing for the upcoming Oct. 1 rally.
Song
Song has been developing and practicing new routines, preparing for the upcoming year. “We’re looking forward to going to games and being as active as possible,” senior Win-Mon Kyi said.
Along with recruiting more girls into the varsity team last spring, the team plans to continue to expand and improve over the season. This month they will run both clinics and tryouts for the team. “I think we’re actually starting off really well and making a lot of progress,” captain Shirley Hao said.
They were not able to perform on stage at orientation due to scheduling difficulties, but they performed in the flagpole area. “I think orientation went really well,” Hao said. “We were able to perform out here and it was an advantage because we were the only ones.”
Before tryouts, clinics will be run on Sept. 8, 9, 15 and 16 by the team to prepare prospective members for the Sept. 17 tryouts.
Senior Letter
After establishing the team last spring, Senior Letter had a major loss when senior captain David Montano moved and left the team one original member short. “We were shocked at first,” senior member Kanishae Benton said. “It was so unexpected. He is still a part of Senior Letter in spirit.”
When Montano left, he chose Jasmine Doctor to join senior Sydnie Tom as co-captain. Senior Letter decided not to replace their teammate and will be continuing on as a group of seven.
Despite this inconvenience, Senior Letter excelled at freshman orientation and plan to top the extreme spirit that their predecessors generated in previous years. “We’re trying to establish ourselves as different from other years,” Kanishae Benton said. “There will never be another team like us.”
The team has been practicing three times a week preparing for the Spirit Rally. “We will bring all the fierceness from orientation,” captain Jasmine Doctor said.
Come support Senior Letter on Oct. 1 at the Spirit Rally.
Note: This article first appeared in the September 10, 2010 issue of The Lowell.
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