The Steinert High School cheer squad. Pictured are (front) head coach Cali Muccia, Jackie DePinto, Gabby Mostragelli, Maria Braghelli, Brianna Morales, MaryRose Chludzinski, Josephine Yi, Jenny Abramczyk, Samantha Melnick, Jenna Miller, JV coach Bianca Jacques, (back) Courtney Sacco,Brittany McCarty, Brier Calcese, Paige Conti, Taylor Lloyd, Kristina Trent, Sofia Solmando, Hailey DaBronzo, Alexis Oldfield, Ashley Adams, Vanessa Baldassari, Katie Giori and Kara Podgurski.
Steinert High’s cheerleaders conquered the local scene late last year, but hope to make an even bigger score on the national scene in March.
In November, the Spartans were named the Grand Champions at the Colonial Valley Conference Cheerleading Classic at West Windsor-Plainsboro North. Steinert, which earned the highest overall score for the day, won the Music Division, as well as Best Music and Best Choreography.
The next big event for Steinert is the Contest of Champions Nationals, hosted at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando in March. The Spartans finished second in their division at the national competition in 2013.
“Winning the CVC is a big deal around here; it’s bragging rights,” said Steinert coach Cali Muccia, who is in her second year at the helm of the program. “They worked really hard all summer, put in a lot of hours, to be able to pull that off.
“Competing at nationals last year was awesome,” she added. “It’s exciting. We finished second last year, so we’re hoping to go back this year and take first.”
Vanessa Baldassari, a junior, said competing at the CVC Cheerleading Classic was “nerve-wracking” because the girls are performing in front of so many people they know personally.
“But it was all worth it in the end,” Baldassari said. “We worked really hard on it and it all worked out. We showed people what we have. It’s exciting to compete; we love it. We just knew we had to prove ourselves, and we did. We were really happy.”
Samantha Melnick, also a junior, agreed.
“You want to do well at CVCs because you’re going against teams from your area and you’re going against girls that you know,” Melnick said. “You want to show people how you’re doing. It’s more stressful because you want to show the other teams around you how you deserve to go to Disney.
“It was definitely exciting.”
Steinert’s fall team consisted of 21 girls, most of which will perform and compete with the squad throughout the entire school year. Tryouts are held over multiple days in late April to pick the squad.
“The varsity team is pretty much a year-round commitment,” Muccia said. “When you try out in April you’re pretty much trying out for the full year. That’s pretty much our core team that will go to nationals.”
The cheerleaders work through the summer on strength and conditioning and preparing for the start of daily practices in August.
“Success is because of talent, hard work and heart,” Muccia said. “Everybody’s heart has to be in it, their mind has to be in it; you have to have the strength and the talent.
“A lot of people underestimate cheerleading; they just consider it pom-poms and pretty bows, but these girls are athletes and work really hard. You are throwing humans, not balls.”
Melnick said the girls do a lot of running in the summer as well as work on stunts and tumbling.
“We do a lot to build up strength in our legs because of the tumbling and jumps,” she said. “It’s really difficult.”
Muccia and Sean Timmons, a cheerleading coach at Rutgers, work together to come up with the routine for the cheerleaders.
“When you do the choreography that’s just the shell of the routine and then you stick everything in once you’re able to hit everything,” Muccia said. “We do the basic choreography two or three days, eight hours each day, over the summer. That’s basically learning the basic. We put in all the stunting, the tumbling, the tricks and the gymnastics, that’s a two or three month process where you put it all together.”
Baldassari said the process was “very intense.”
“I don’t even know how to explain it, but once we get to the competitions, it’s worth it,” she said. “If something needs to be fixed, Cali is always there to fix it. She’s a great coach.”
Baldassari started cheering her freshman year. She previously did gymnastics.
“There’s no gymnastics at school, so I decided to try something new,” Baldassari said. “I’m addicted to it. I just love the adrenaline it gives me. And I love being around my teammates. It means a lot to me. I love it all around.”
Melnick has been cheering since the third grade.
“It’s a team-oriented sport and it’s competitive; a lot of people don’t know how competitive cheerleading is,” said Melnick, who was involved in dance prior to becoming a cheerleader. “It’s fun and it’s addicting. You always want to get better and you always want to get new tumbling skills and push to go to harder competitions.”
Despite all the intensity and preparation, the cheerleaders manage to have a lot of fun.
“Things happen in cheerleading practice that you’ll never see anywhere else,” Muccia said with a laugh. “To spend an hour in cheerleading practice, people are like, ‘Oh my, I don’t know how you do it.’ You just have to go with it. The girls are goofy and fun and silly, but they know when it’s time to get down to business.”
“I love being with the girls and I love watching them perform. I spend so much time with them that we become a family. I love getting to know all of them, not just on a coaching level but on a personal level. They’re just great kids to be around.”
The Spartans are a close-knit group, on the mat and off.
“I think we’re definitely closer than years in the past,” Melnick said. “We do things like team sleepovers for bonding and we do scavenger hunts. Girls on the team confide different things with their teammates, things that are going on in their lives. We’re together five or six days a week so you definitely start trusting each other.”
In addition to cheerleading, the girls are involved in other school activities and charity work, such as raising money for diabetes research.
“Whatever we can do, we will do,” Muccia said. “They’re all extremely talented girls and they all do well in school on top of spending all these hours at cheerleading. A lot of them are in student government and stuff in school. It’s rewarding to see them put in all that hard work and compete and be successful.”
Success that the Spartans hope continues during the New Year as they get ready for their trip to Florida.
“We have more competitions this year than we did last year so we’ll be more prepared and ready,” Baldassari said. “We’re really excited about Disney. We have countdowns on our phone. We text each other every day to remind each other how many days are left. We’re all psyched about it.”
Psyched to show that Disney is where dreams come true, especially if you work for them.
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