For Division cheerleading, a season of firsts

In the eight years that cheerleading has been established as a sport, Division had yet to win a county or state title. This year, the program got both.

For the last two years, Division finished in second at the county championship, and this season, it was hungrier than ever to finally take home the win.

“We all sat down at the beginning of the season and made our number one goal to become county champions,” coach Cristen Marcy said. “Class B is the division with the toughest competition, so we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy accomplishment”

But on Feb. 17, Division secured the Class B crown with a 90.3 at Farmingdale State College for the first time in program history.

“We knew after walking off of that mat, there was nothing we could have done better,” senior Jenna Hansen said. “When we heard our name called as the winner, we all just hugged each other so tight, we had been waiting for this.”

“We were so ecstatic,” Marcy said. “We just told them to trust each other and trust themselves, and it paid off in the end.”

Their county win meant they’d take the trip to the state cheerleading championships in Binghamton, a competition Division had never competed in before.

“It all felt surreal,” senior Eva Guerra said. “We were so excited to have the opportunity to go there and represent our school.”

Marcy says that in the time leading up to the state championships, she told the girls to remove any distractions so that they could focus solely on bringing the best routine possible.

“We didn’t research any teams going into it, we just wanted to focus on the execution of what we could control, ” Marcy said. “We ran our routines section by section and part by part, nitpicking every little thing to make sure it was perfect.”

And it was as close to perfect as it gets. Division was named the Class B champions at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena on March 2.

“I don’t even have the words to describe the feeling of hearing our name called,” Marcy said. “For every coach, this is their end goal, and in the nine years that we’ve been coaching, we never dreamed that this would happen. But with this team, we knew anything was possible. They hit a flawless routine and that’s just due to the practice we put in.”

Guerra says that it felt reassuring to finally get the title after working so hard for years to get it.

“There’s a sense of relief that finally all of our hard work and dedication had paid off,” Guerra said. “We left everything we had on the mat and I couldn’t have been happier to end it with this group.”

Four years of being on the Division cheer squad later, Hansen says there’s no way she’d rather end her cheerleading career.

“Walking off the mat for the last time was emotional,” Hansen said. “But being able to come this far, especially my senior year, was something so special.”

Marcy is already looking ahead to next season. With just six graduating seniors, she’s confident that the team can get back to this position.

“We’ve already gotten started,” she said. “We’ve built this program that we’re so proud of and we hope to continue to grow and keep this success going.”