CHS cheerleaders come together at a recent meet. (Photos courtesy BreAnna Boon)
“We’re going to Disney World!”
“We are just a small team with a big dream!”
And now that dream is coming true for Coupeville High School senior Ja’Tarya Hoskins and her teammates on the Wolf competition cheer squad.
In a little under two months, the Wolves will be in Florida, after the news hit Tuesday they had qualified for the National High School Cheerleading Championship.
NHSCC is set for Feb. 7-9, 2020 at the Walt Disney World Resort’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando.
Nationally televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU, it’s beamed out to more than 100 million homes and 32 countries.
Coupeville hitting the biggest stage out of all the big stages?
Not bad for a school which just returned to the competition mat last year after being absent for more than a decade.
In year one, CHS coach BreAnna Boon and her cheerleaders stunned folks by placing 3rd at the state meet.
This time around, they were looking for more. Much more.
“The cheerleaders have been working nonstop since summer camp with one goal in mind — nationals,” Boon said.
“With seven seniors on the squad, I wanted them to hit the goal so bad, but having gone to nationals myself all four years of high school (in Oak Harbor), I knew they had their work cut out for them.”
That didn’t deter the Wolves, who carry 10 girls and two boys on their competition roster.
Mica Shipley, Marenna Rebischke-Smith, Bella Velasco, Coral Caveness, Karyme Castro, Melia Welling, Ashleigh Battaglia, Emily Fiedler, Ella Bueler, and Hoskins are joined by Gavin St Onge and Dawson Houston.
“I have said from the very beginning, if there was a team that would get the bid, it would be this one,” Boon said. “The leadership and drive that these athletes possess is unbelievable. They set their minds to something, they won’t stop until they achieve it.
“I am there to coach them, but ultimately, they have to be willing and able to follow through with what they are being taught,” she added. “Individually they are all such great leaders, and then they come together on that cheer mat as a force to be reckoned with.
“They are always so excited to make the school and town of Coupeville proud.”
The Wolves will compete in the “small non-tumbling coed” division at nationals.
Having just added male cheerleaders this year, the CHS squad faces an uphill battle.
“Our boys have a lot of work ahead of them,” Boon said. “Being completely new to the cheer squad, and seniors, they haven’t had a lot of time to learn the coed stunts that most coed teams would be working on for a couple of years.
“I never thought when I started coaching at Coupeville, my second year in, I would have a team going to nationals! How crazy does that even sound?? It feels like a dream!”
Along with working on their routine, the Wolves need to raise the money necessary for the trip.
“We have A LOT of fundraising to do in a short amount of time,” Boon said. “So be looking out for ways to support your CHS cheer team!”
While the next two months will be packed with practice, the Wolves were content to bask in the moment Tuesday night, as they relayed their news to their classmates, parents, and fans after that night’s basketball games.
Smiles were the order of the day, and the electricity zinging from athlete to athlete was contagious.
“We’re going to Disney where dreams come true,” Ashleigh Battaglia said. “But our dreams just came true!”
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