Ward Melville cheerleading's perfect routine led to a state championship
Ward Melville competes during the NYSPHSAA cheerleading championships at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton, N.Y. on March 2. Credit: Jorge Marcano
Needing one more flawless routine in the state finals, the Ward Melville cheerleading team delivered its final fantastic performance.
Along with perfection.
The coed squad’s 87.8 score — the highest of the competition — gave Ward Melville its first state crown and capped an undefeated season.
“We kept raising the bar and challenging ourselves. We never wanted to settle,” senior back Kim Vosswinkel said. “We knew we had a lot of potential and that we could build on that and that’s exactly what we did.”
Ward Melville, which also competed in Game Day for the first time this fall, went undefeated during that season too, finishing as the state Class A runner-up in November.
“The drive started in the fall season. The workload with both Game Day and traditional brought us together and pushed us to work harder,” Vosswinkel said. “We had a fire lit under us to make it to states again in March.”
“We knew that we had things to clean up to be the best for traditional,” sophomore base Ian Licavoli said. “We knew what it felt like to come so close so that drove us.”
Ward Melville's Ian Licavoli competes in the NYSPHSAA cheerleading championship at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton. Credit: Jorge Marcano
The Patriots practiced six, sometimes even seven, days a week in preparation for the season. But to this squad, the scheduled practice wasn’t enough.
“This was the most dedicated squad I ever coached,” coach Georgia Gass said. “How often do you get texts outside of practice about practice? Every day they would ask us to send them videos to watch in their free time."
“Most of achieving perfection is what you can learn, visualize and apply,” Vosswinkel said. “We needed to go home and absorb it. We realized it not only helped us mentally, but it helped us be more physically prepared the next practice.”
Mental strength was also an important part of the Patriots’ continued success.
“We work both the physical aspect of cheer and the mental aspect,” Gass said. “We listen to an inspirational speech every time we warm up to have the right mindset.”
“We would share positive quotes before practice and talk about how we were feeling in restorative circles,” Licavoli added. “We would even have a dance party before we went on the mat. Those are some of the best memories I have. It helped our nerves, and it helped us push through as a family.”
As Ward Melville began to clinch win after win, the familial squad slowly made small steps to the ultimate victory.
“Our wins came naturally. It came down to how much work we could put in,” Vosswinkel said. “We set goals for what stunts we wanted to add each week. The end goal was never to be first or undefeated, we just wanted to do the best we could do.”
With more than half of the members being sophomores, Ward Melville is looking forward to winning more championships.
“We say Patriot pride in our cheer, and we really show it,” Vosswinkel said. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for this team and now we have more motivation than ever to keep up the success for years to come.”
