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player ready...During the football and basketball seasons at Elmwood Park High School, win or lose, there’s always someone cheering for the team.
Each year a group of at least 30 girls (and sometimes a few boys) assembles on the sidelines of the football field and alongside the basketball court.
The group is the Elmwood Park High School Cheerleading Team. Their goal? Making sure the team either wins or never gives up trying to win.
Bob Pacini, 63, has been the head coach of the cheerleading team since 1999. An Elmwood Park resident, he stepped in to keep the program going when no one else wanted to.
“I did because I didn’t want to disappoint my daughter,” he said. “I enjoy it. I enjoy the kids and they help me stay active.”
Along with being the head cheerleading coach at the high school, he has also coached cheerleaders at Dominican University and for the Elmwood Park Parks and Recreation Department.
He said motivating the team as well as the crowd isn’t easy, but says the team makes an impact.
“Obviously it helps get the crowd involved and it helps the players on the field to know someone is behind them,” he said.
Douglas Noyes, Elmwood Park High School’s athletic director, said the cheerleaders are appreciated.
“They’ve been an integral part of school spirit and student engagement in basketball games and football games,” Noyes said.
He said what the cheerleaders do make an impact.
“The girls cheer for all home games, whether it be boys or girls,” Noyes said. “The girls basketball team appreciates it and it makes them feel like there are being more supported when the cheerleaders are there.”
During the fall the team practices three times a week, but by November, the team is either practicing or cheering at games six days a week.
But Pacini said they aren’t just practicing for games: They attend their own cheerleading competitions. The team has done well participating in high school state cheerleading competitions since 2006, he said.
Despite their busy schedules, they always show up to support the teams and rally the crowd.
Caitlin Wickstrom, 15, is the varsity cheerleading team’s captain. She’s been a cheerleader for the past two years.
She said because Elmwood Park is such a small high school, they know most of the players they’re cheering on. As a result, they feel the thrill of victory when the team wins — but they also feel the agony of defeat.
“I do enjoy showing up for the football games,” Wickstrom said. “When we do cheer at football games and basketball games, it’s to help the teams at our school strive for what we strive for. When we’re cheering for them, we put ourselves in that same situation — and that’s that we’re trying to win the game.”
Wickstrom said being a cheerleader has been a big part of her life so far.
“If I wasn’t cheering all year-round, I wouldn’t know what I would be doing,” she said. “I just feel like being a cheerleader helps my life not be so boring. I cheer for the games and I enjoy cheering, but then it becomes more personal when we’re going against different cheer teams.”
Dena Stranski, 14, has been on the team for two years as well. She’s also a captain.
“On the sidelines, they do like us supporting them,” she said of the players. “I feel what players do, because I know how it feels to win and I know how it feels to lose. When something goes good or bad, I’m there with them.”
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Pacini said his cheerleaders have a lot of pride and it shows during games.
“They get the crowd going,” he said. “[The teams] know someone else is watching and know someone else is concerned about what is happening on that field.”
Twitter: @DavidDPollard