HIGH SCHOOL CHEERLEADING: A MAGICAL END FOR THE HORSEHEADS CHEER TEAM AS THEY MAKE HISTORY (2024-03-21)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
Sometimes one moment can make history. Sometimes one moment can change everything for a group of athletes.

That’s what happened for the Horseheads Blue Raiders at the NYSPHSAA Cheer Championships.

One performance in the final where they left everything out on the mat led to a third-place finish at states. It may have also altered the next four years of their lives for the team’s three seniors.

“It was very special, it was a great way to end our season, especially for us, because we are seniors, so it’s a great way to go out,” Olivia Giammichele said. “It was super special. It was like an indescribable feeling. Because, we didn’t really know if we made it (to finals) or not. Going into finals I think we were lower than we even placed in finals, so we even came back and did better than we had.”

“It was very special,” Alivia Augustine said. “That was the best way I feel like we could have ended our season. It was on such a positive note and it was our best routine yet. So, it was so nice.

“I can’t even describe how happy we all were, hearing we got to place.”

Getting third in the state was something that hadn’t been done before by Horseheads.

“It was extremely special for us,” Lexi Ostrander said. “Especially since we are seniors and I don’t think any other cheer team for Horseheads has ever placed third at states. We basically made history for Horseheads.

“I think especially all three of us were so excited. I know all three of us had happy tears.”

For the Horseheads cheerleaders the finals at states were a chance to leave everything on the mat. While they were able to make the finals after their preliminary round, they didn’t feel like that first performance was their best.

“It was kind of our redemption,” Giammichele said. “I don’t think our first routine was the best routine we put on the mat. I think for me at least it wasn’t so just being able to go out there and put everything out there and know this is the last time I’m ever going to compete for Horseheads and just to pout everything out and know I’m doing my best.

“I was just crying the whole routine. It was happy tears for me and sad ones knowing I was done. I don’t think we regret anything we did in that last routine. I think every single one of us put our all into the mat and it wasn’t really we cared where we placed, we just wanted to feel a good feeling.”

Sometimes in a final a team can have a nothing to lose attitude after making it there. However, for the Blue Raiders they knew they wanted to have a better showing than the prelims.

“I don’t think a lot of us thought we had nothing to lose,” Augustine said. “I think we had a bigger drive and motivator for us to keep pushing and really just exert ourselves on that last run.

“Hitting that last pose at the end definitely made me so overcome with emotions. I know personally I balled my eyes out at the end, because I was so proud of my entire team and the seniors, how hard we have worked for it and we pulled it off.”

The girls all knew that even though the prelims were good, they could do even better.

“I feel like we all knew we could do better from our first performance and push ourselves a lot harder, and I feel like we had that drive,” Ostrander said. “Already making it into the final series, that’s how far we got last time, because we were fifth in the state, and we knew we could do better.

“I feel like we had a lot of emotions coming off the mat. Like Liv said, that last striking end pose that made me feel like this is my last time performing for Horseheads. It was definitely upsetting, but I feel like we went out with a bang and I’m excited for what Horseheads is going to do next.”

That final performance may just alter the next four years for the seniors. They weren’t sure if they were going to cheer again, but now they are thinking that maybe they will in college.

“We two (Giammichele and Augustine) might be, but we are not sure yet,” Giammichele said. “I think at least for me and Liv I was thinking I was done with cheer after this and then I performed the first time (at states) and I was like I don’t think I’m done. I don’t think I can be done with this, so it was extra special knowing it was my last time (in high school), at the same time I kind of have this feeling I don’t want to be done yet.”

Augustine pretty much had her mind made up that this was it, until this season changed her thought process.

“I definitely had my mind made up at the beginning of the season that this was going to be my last time cheering, because I want to focus more on my career when I get to college,” she said. “But, performing at states completely changed my mind .I’m not ready to give it up yet, so I think I’ll cheer in college.”

“I have considered cheering in college,” Ostrander said. “Especially, what Live said, that last performance made me know it’s not something I can give up. I”m not ready to give it up yet.”

For Horseheads this third-place finish at states was something that has been building for years.

“I think growing up we always had this core group of us working together, working together since seventh and eighth grade and this was a long time coming for us,” Giammichele said. “We just have a really good bond, so I think that helped us.”

The coaches gave the girls confidence they could do this.

“Since seventh grade we have been pushing ourselves for this moment and this is what we have been waiting for,” Augustine said .”I definitely think with the support of our coaches and them reassuring us they know what they are doing and we just have to apply it really helped.”

“I think even when we were in seventh and eighth grade we all had that drive to be where we are today,” Ostrander said.

The seniors are happy with how high they have set the bar for the future, and they are excited to see future classes try and do even better.

“I am super proud of where we set the bar,” Giammichele said. “Watching when we were middle schoolers, compared to what we do now and kind of how far we have come and what we can do now, it’s a good feeling to know we made history.”

“I am definitely incredibly proud of where we set the bar for the upcoming seniors and the rest of the team,” Augustine said. “I think us placing third is going to help them push even further to want to place second or first, because we know we can do it now and they know they have the materials to do it.”

“I feel like we set the bar extremely high and I feel like the grades below us will have a greater push to do better than we were,” Ostrander said. “Especially since we were like less than a point away from getting second and that would have been huge. Younger generations from us, I feel like they can go away beyond where we did.”

For the seniors they feel like they did everything they could to end their careers on a high note.

“We have been saying it was a good way to go out and we put everything out there and there was nothing else we could do,” Giammichele said. “I feel like that’s just a great way to end our high school cheerleading career.”

That last time on the mat is something the seniors will never forget.

“I am extremely proud of how we ended the season, Augustine said. “Especially with me being a senior, that last run, I can’t even describe to you how happy I was in that moment. To be able to have that moment and memory is so special.”
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