The Valley Regional-Old Lyme cheerleading team is a small but close-knit group that is ready to use 2024 as a season that will hopefully go down as a turning point in helping the program blossom to the next level.

Head Coach Shaheer Ahmed sports quite a veteran club this fall, with many athletes having the mindset to continue their passion beyond graduation. The girls do not sport a winter club during the competitive campaign, though, it just means they are truly utilizing their time to the max while pushing themselves to take on new adventures and become more well-rounded.

“The overall goal for the team this year has continued to be individual improvement. Most of the team is comprised of seniors, so many have expressed interest in wanting to continue cheering in college,” said Ahmed, in her second year at the helm for the Warriors. “With that goal in mind, we have been focused more on technique and difficulty this year, pushing athletes to try new skills or elements and being nit-picky about the smallest detail. Since we are only a fall season squad, it can become challenging trying to teach multiple skills and lessons in such a short time frame. With this time restraint, many of these athletes are coming to practices willing to learn and better themselves, both for their time here and future endeavors.”

The Warriors have four senior captains this year with two from Valley and a tandem hailing from Old Lyme. The Valley captains are Amelia Martinez and Jasmine Ferguson, while the Old Lyme captains are Anna Eichholz and Hannah Bonilla. Martinez is a multi-sport athlete, participating in track for the winter and golf in the spring. Ferguson participates in many extracurricular activities, including being a member of the choir and school musical program, and she was a participant in track for the spring.

“Amelia was recently the captain of the golf team, so her leadership skills have transferred seamlessly into the role of a cheer captain. Throughout practices, she can be seen helping others with skills and always putting her best foot forward,” said Ahmed. “Jasmine was rewarded as the Scholar Athlete award winner last season, highlighting her ability to balance academics with cheer. Throughout the season, she has set a great example to other cheerleaders by constantly motivating others and pushing through whatever she does, as well as taking initiative if an element goes astray.”

Additionally, Eichholz is the reigning team MVP from last fall and brings a great depth of knowledge and talent to the table. Meanwhile, Bonilla notched the Sportsmanship Award in 2023 as someone who is never discouraged, and she had an infectious enthusiasm.

“Anna Eichholz brings a copious amount of tumbling knowledge to the team. As one of our only elite tumblers, Anna has a background in gymnastics and uses those skills to assist in teaching tumbling to teammates. She is constantly seen on the team motivating others to try new tumbling skills and helps with tumbling technique, as well,” said Ahmed. “No matter what happens, Hannah can be seen in a happy mood and uplifts her team members, as well. Whether it is a critique or hitting a new skill, Hannah is seen cheering everyone on and can be counted on to lift team spirits up.”

Senior Tirill Mundal joins the Warriors this year as an exchange student from Norway. Though she may be new to certain elements of the sport, she has taken a proactive approach to conquer any task that may seem daunting to a newcomer.

“Being completely new to cheer, she has picked up the sport very well and always has a positive attitude about trying new elements,” said Ahmed. “She has even taken the initiative to learn how to do a back handspring, with no prior tumbling experience, showcasing her eagerness to learn more about the sport and be a well-rounded student-athlete.”

Ahmed explained that the girls certainly took to heart the lessons they learned from deficiencies and hardships of a year ago. It has led to a collection of more confident and courageous athletes willing to step outside their safety zone and enhance the team’s overall acumen.

“The season had started off strong compared to the prior one. What we struggled with last year, we became much more comfortable this year, like being able to do extended stunts and multiple connected jumps,” said Ahmed. “Even during tryouts, we were working on stunts that we worked all season to obtain last year, showcasing the improvements made. Some notable highlights for this season include doing more advanced pyramids during sidelines for games, and athletes dealing with adversity better. They are often able to fill in for stunts last minute and execute them well. Most of these advanced pyramid skills involve released skills, which is an immense progress from last year, where our pyramid skills were beginner level and required a lot of modifications.”

The Warriors are focused on giving fans under the Friday Night Lights an intermission show that will leave them asking for more. The standard was certainly brought up a notch last campaign, and the girls look to enhance it once more.

“Some events we are looking forward to would be any upcoming home games. We plan to perform halftime on certain games, as well as showcase our pyramid skills on the sidelines,” said Ahmed. “We set the bar in a different direction last year with our halftime performance, so we hope to keep on continuing that momentum for this year.”

As the Warriors have really bought into their coach’s preseason targets by challenging themselves to enhance both their individual and collective skills, they are starting to take more stock of what it truly means to be a team in cheerleading.

“I anticipate this season to be primarily about progress toward the overall direction of the program, being less of a fun club and more of a competitive athletic program,” said Ahmed. “This season, many of the athletes are beginning to realize the seriousness of this sport and how much work goes into cheerleading. Additionally, the athletes are realizing how much of a team sport we are compared to prior seasons, where every individual's role matters, which makes cheerleading unique in a way. If several people are missing, a lot of changes would have to be made to create the same effect, often leading to reteaching and reworking elements.”

As the end goal in the grander perspective, Ahmed and the Warriors want to have the spectators marvel to the extent where they are able to grow their program even deeper to amass bigger feats.

“Overall, the team wants to create a bigger impact than last year in hopes to attract even more participation in the sport for the future seasons,” Ahmed said. “We have started to increase difficulty in our skills this year, so I hope both future athletes and spectators can see the improvement this program has made in such a short time, and that we are on the track to hopefully becoming a prominent program in the near future.”

The Warriors’ roster is comprised of seniors Abigail Green, Martinez, Eichholz, Emily Brainerd, Bonilla, Hoshena Gemme, Isabel Schmelzer, Ferguson, Marco Gonzaga, Mundal; juniors Emma Abramson; plus sophomores Ace Trippconey, Kaydence Chambers, and Mackenzie DePasquale.