Lacey Cheer Team Aims for National Title

While many of their classmates were bundling up to head to school Thursday morning, the members of the Lacey co-ed cheerleading team were on the practice floor, running through their routine.

By the time their classmates were heading to second period, the cheer team was finishing its two-hour practice and heading out into the Florida sunshine. But the trip won’t be relaxing.

“This is no vacation,” said Kelly Zuccarelli, coach of the Lacey High School co-ed cheerleading team. “We are going there for a purpose. We want to win.”

And they believe they can: the Lacey team is in Florida for the fourth straight year, competing in the National High School Cheerleading Championships at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee, Fla., against teams from around the country.

The co-ed team, as it sounds, is comprised of girls and boys. Twenty members – 16 girls and four boys – compete, and the team has one alternate.

They perform a 2-1/2-minute routine – 1-1/2 minutes to music and a minute of cheer – that includes a number of stunts, a lot of tumbling and two pyramids that encompass all 20 members of the team, Zuccarelli said.

It’s completely different from the cheerleading competitions Zuccarelli did when she attended Lacey.

“We went to the Ocean County Championships when I was there in ’82, but back then we wore saddle shoes,” she said. “These kids are athletes. It’s far more tactical. It’s precision work, and it takes a toll on the kids.”

Lacey first went to the national championships in 2009 and placed ninth, Zuccarelli said. That finish earned the team a national ranking, and in 2010 they returned to Florida and finished sixth. Last year’s trip resulted in a third-place finish – and face time on ESPN.

“That was exciting,” she said. “They usually only highlight the top two teams (in each category), so that was special.”

This year’s team faced a challenge, she said. For starters, they lost 10 members from last year. “So we’re a very young team.”

But they’ve also increased the difficulty of the routines.

“The kids who are freshmen are doing things the seniors never would have thought of,” Zuccarelli said.

But they’ve meshed nicely, winning every competition so far this year, Zuccarelli said, including last weekend at the Ocean County Championships, where they not only won their division but were named the grand champions as well.

Lacey, which has won five state championships, has competed at the high level despite the fact that it begins practicing just after Thanksgiving, when the fall season was over.

“Most of the other teams (at the national championships) are practicing year-round,” she said.

The team comes together so well because it’s a family that pulls together, Zuccarelli said, with the parents, cheerleaders and coaches all playing a part.

“It takes all of us to make this happen,” she said.

And it all culminates on Saturday morning, when the Lions squad takes the stage at the HP Fieldhouse at 9:52 to show off its Lacey pride.

None of it would be possible without support from the community, both inside and outside the school, Zuccarelli said.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to the high school booster club,” she said. “If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be going to the national championship,” because the booster club helped with a significant portion of the fundraising. The trip costs in excess of $30,000, all of it paid by fundraising.

Local businesses have been “unbelievably generous to us,” she said, citing Caffrey’s Tavern, Wells Fargo and Exelon, the owner of Oyster Creek Generating Station, as key donors to the effort as well.

Zuccarelli, whose daughter Alyssa competed on the first team that went to nationals, is assisted by the husband-and-wife duo of Jamie and Kevin Hans, who met through cheerleading. The team has five seniors – captains Brianna Bacchetta, Jessica Innamorato and Allison Orlasky, and Kristie O’Hara and Breanna Redstone. There are two juniors, Jaclyn Bocchini and Andrew Papa, eight sophomores – Andrew Como, Sean Frank, Alexis Stephens, Savannah Gray, Carley Adamczuk, Autumn Higgins, Christina Van Berkel, and Brittany Mattieu. Freshmen Briana Zuccarelli, Ashley Klaus, Brooke Bacchetta, Sydney Webb and Shane Javick. Christopher D’Addario is the alternate.

They return Monday, and Zuccarelli hopes it will be with the championship hardware.

“These kids have worked hard,” she said.