By Sarah Opdahl

It is no secret that cheerleading is both a remarkably competitive and astonishingly successful endeavor for many children, tweens, and teens in New Fairfield. Year after year the New Fairfield Falcons, a program for five to sixteen year olds, have attended high-level competitions, including Nationals at Disney, and they will once again be represented at the elite gathering this week. This year, however, the group and its competitors in Western Connecticut switched to a new league—from Pop Warner to American Youth Cheer (AYC)—and the coaches and cheerleaders are excited to continue to rise in the midst of new challenges.

Christine Gillespie, one of New Fairfield’s leading coaches, who has coached cheerleading for over two decades, explained that “we discovered AYC is more competitive than Pop Warner.” There are a number of factors that impact the competition level, including that many teams in AYC hire choreographers and are allowed to practice more hours per week than those in Pop Warner. Despite the leg up that gave the competition, New Fairfield’s teams had a great showing at their respective levels, with Gillespie pointing out, “the Local competition went well with our D8 team doing a fun exhibition and our D12 and D16 teams taking home first place. At States D12 got 2nd and D16 got 1st. Regionals were held at Mohegan Sun. D12 came in 4th and missed a Nationals bid by only a tenth of a point. D16 won their division and will be competing at Nationals at Disney World on December 4th. If they place in the top 5, they will move on to finals on the 6th.”

The cheerleading season runs half the year and is intense, Gillespie shared, adding, “It is stressful and a huge time commitment, but it is always worth it.” She coaches alongside her mother, Cindy Gillespie, and sister, Andi Gillespie, plus their good friend Melissa Strid. “We work collaboratively to teach the girls techniques and new skills. Andi and I also choreograph the routine. The routine is never finished. We are always tweaking it to be better, flashier, harder, etc.” Despite the rule changes in AYC, Gillespie explained that, in New Fairfield, “We do not have enough practice space to practice more than six hours, so we still stick to the lower end,” and she and Andi plan to continue to choreograph the routines and choose the music to which the cheerleaders will perform.

From August to November the coaches and cheerleaders are nonstop. With both cheer competitions and football performances occurring throughout the fall, all involved—there are no tryouts, all signups are welcomed in—hit the ground running in August with ten hours of practice per week. After Labor Day, and with the start of the academic year, the practices decrease to six hours per week, with a game or competitions on the weekend throughout the fall. “But the real commitment is working on the routine. It takes hours every night for months. It is all consuming and we do virtually nothing else from August through November,” Gillespie emphasized.

The coaches work with Progression Sheets, which list basic skills and where each student measures for stunts, dismounts, basket tosses, and tumbling required at each level. “You start at the lowest level and each cheerleader must complete the progressions before moving forward,” Gillespie explained. She added, “We also have to teach the girls mental toughness, teamwork, discipline, and how the scoresheet works. They need to know the rules so they can make smart decisions if something goes wrong on the competition mat…We ask the girls to set a goal for themselves early in the year…We remind them of that goal and the hard work it will take to achieve it.”

There is a lot of excitement ahead for the cheerleading program, and they look forward to continuing to shine and find success, while also having a fun and enriching experience. For the coaches and the cheerleaders, life is about to slow down a bit, and Gillepsie is grateful and thrilled about the Nationals competition, which begins today. She enthusiastically shared, “we have had a great season so far and I cannot wait to see how it ends. Go Falcons!”