The Holy Cross athletic department might need to get a bigger trophy case now that the school’s competition team has racked up their ninth NCA title, winning their second in a row with a dominating performance. The national champs even matched their combined overall score from last year’s competition in the Small Novice division at 85.99, a feat made even more remarkable when you consider the second place finisher scored 81.73. Dominating indeed!
And the similarities from the team’s 2010-2011 victory don’t end there, as they adopted yet another Taylor Swift song (“Long Live”) as inspiration for 2011-2012’s NCA title run:
“Long live the walls we crashed through… I was screaming long live all the magic we made…One day, we will be remembered.”
Sparked by the song’s stirring lyrics and equipped with T-shirts emblazoned with “Meet us at the mat,” the HC competition team also came up with “Make it shine” as their team motto, and boy did they ever. Head coach Jennifer Lopez credits the ‘magic’ of Team Fabulous choreographers Jose de la Garza and Eric Villarreal with helping her cheerleaders ‘make it shine’ this January in Dallas. The team consists of senior captain, Amanda Robles, seniors Maria De Leon, Angelica Mares, Kassie Martinez, juniors Valarie Jimenez, Kristen Morales, Jazzel Reyes, and Sadie Silva, sophomores Brandon Garcia and Stephanie Hernandez, and freshman Justine Aguilar and Lilly Escobedo. Head coach Lopez also commends the unrelenting support and commitment from her assistant coaches, Audry Rubio and Gabrielle Kinderknecht, sponsor Mindy Fernandez, and athletic trainer Dan Feranandez.
So stay tuned because the competition season is not over yet; these 12 shining stars are planning to dominate at the American Cheerpower Nationals held on February 17-18 at the Alamodome. Once again, this highly competitive team will be ‘crashing’ through those competition walls to be ‘remembered’ for making it shine as they compete for their sixth Cheerpower title.
By: Albert A. Lopez (Class of ’97)
