A season full of hopes and dreams and work had come down to this. Saturday morning the Riverside-Brookfield High School cheerleaders had just under three minutes to strut their stuff before a panel of judges and a large crowd at U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington at the Illinois High School Association State Finals. The cheerleaders rose to the occasion and turned in a flawless routine to finish second in the state in the medium schools division and become the first girls athletic team in RB history to win a state trophy.
“It is the perfect ending to my RB cheerleading career,” said a still ecstatic Rebecca O’Neal, an RB senior. “I’ve been waiting four years for this. It’s just perfect. I’m still in shock.”
Riverside-Brookfield scored 89.08 points to finish second behind defending champion Lemont, which scored 90.56. Oak Forest was third with 88.86 points.
Competitive cheerleading is in its fifth year as an official sport sanctioned by the IHSA. The scoring is done by judges who look at 10 categories. RB’s routine included tumbling and aerial stunts.
Under coach Chris Borzym, RB has qualified for the state meet every year cheerleading has been a sport, but the Bulldogs had never come away with a trophy until now. In cheerleading, trophies are awarded to the top three teams.
Only three other RB teams have ever won state trophies. The boys cross country team finished second in the state in 1973, the boys tennis team finished third in 1979 and the wrestling team finished third in 1981. An RB team has never won a state championship.
“From the beginning of the year we really wanted top three,” O’Neal said. “When they called our names it was, ‘Oh my god.'”
Borzym said the difference this year was a more rigorous practice schedule which included practices five days a week during the competitive season and the senior leadership of his four captains, O’Neal, Nicole Rocconi, Sabrina Schuppe, and Tori Zeman, who all have been varsity cheerleaders since their freshman year.
“Our team is so close,” O’Neal said. “I’m so attached to this team. I would consider them like my sisters. We were so close. We knew how to push each other the right way. We worked really well as a unit. It worked out. We had a lot of talent and a lot of determination.”
O’Neal is a talented gymnast who qualified for the state gymnastics meet last year on the uneven bars. But this year she quit gymnastics to concentrate on cheerleading. Competing in two varsity sports the same season was too much.
O’Neal bristles when she hears people snicker that cheerleading is not a real sport.
“I hate when people say that,” O’Neal said. “It is a sport. It takes so much time. We practice five days a week. It takes time and dedication like any other sport does.”
In addition to finishing second in the state, the RB cheerleaders won all four invitational meets that they competed in this season and won the conference championship for the fourth year in a row.
Besides the four co-captains, the other varsity cheerleaders included Emily Arp, Angelica Beresheim, Kristi Cassano, Katelyn Castle, Maeve Cloherty, Natalee Garza, Rachel Konopacz, Liz Larson, Hannah Likness, Cynina Mason, Dina Petrenko, Rachel Rocconi, Courtney Spirek, and Emily Waas.