The Southington High School cheerleaders pose for the crowd at the Compete for a Cure competition in Torrington on Feb. 4.
By BRIAN JENNINGS
STAFF WRITER
Last year was the first time in Heather Allenback’s 20-year coaching career that the Lady Knight cheerleading squad opted out of the Class LL championship, but the Knights returned to competition with a vengeance. Each meet was better than the last.
The time off paid off.
“I had to reassess some of the things that I wanted to do during practices to maintain because it’s a long season,” the coach said. “The morale was strong this year, and the girls were genuinely nice towards each other. If they had issues, they worked through them.”
They also returned to the big stage. The Knights traveled to Hillhouse High School in New Haven on Saturday, March 4 and placed 12th overall out of 16 teams with 126.7 points at this year’s state competition.
“I was very proud of them because I knew that they did as much as they could out on the mat,” said Allenback.
After finishing as runner-up at last year’s championship, Danbury won the Class LL title with 178 points. Fairfield Ludlowe (177.7) finished as runner-up, followed by Newtown (176.5), Shelton (176.4), Fairfield Warde (164.4), and Brien McMahon (146.2).
Some Class LL teams garner girls that have competed through all-star cheerleading programs around the state at very young ages. Some Class LL coaches allow those girls to compete on their high school teams, which is one of the reasons why Allenback said Class LL is so challenging.
“The teams that tend to be really strong in Class LL have those cheerleaders on their teams,” the coach said. “I don’t have those cheerleaders on my team, so it’s very difficult for us to compete with certain skills.”
Another challenge for Southington can also come in the form of just trying to make the top 10 of Class LL. Danbury has been near the top of Class LL, if not at the top, almost every year. A strong feeder program can be credited towards their success, which is something Allenback has been trying to build in Southington throughout her 20-year tenure.
“It’s been difficult to have consistent middle school coaches,” said Allenback. “We also are fighting against the small-team issues of the gymnastics team. There are kids that tumble all through their childhood, then go right into gymnastics and don’t cheer.”
There has been more activity in the town teams over the past five years though, which is a change that Allenback said will start to take effect on Southington High School’s cheerleading program over the next couple years. The Southington Knights Travel Cheerleaders Division 10 and 14 squads competed at the national cheerleading championships in Kissimmee, Fla. in December 2015. The Division 10 team place third, while the Division 14 team finished as runner-up in the nation, rallying to a state title earlier in the year.
“I have a pretty good working relationship with the American Youth Cheerleading group in town,” the coach said. “They’ve been very good to work with because they’ve been trying to do develop some girls for me to have at the high school.”
Most teams in Class LL come from the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, while just two teams—Southington and Conard—come from the CCC.
But the Knights did experience success during the season. Competing every weekend since the last weekend of January, making Saturday’s Class LL meet their sixth competition of the year, the Knights had one of their best competitions of the season. The Knights placed first in their respective group at the New England Open Cheer and Dance championship at East Haven High School on Saturday, Feb. 25.
At the CCC championship at Hall High School in West Hartford on Saturday, Feb. 18, Southington placed third in their division. Allenback is the president of the conference’s cheerleading committee and was heavily involved with the conference championship, as 21 of the 30 teams in the CCC attended the meet.
The varsity roster from this season included the following girls: Caitlin Cochran, Megan DeLorme (all-conference), Lindsey Dizenzo, Shelby Doerfler, Kelsie Downey, Michelle Flynn, Ally Krampitz (all-conference), Saige Lopez, Erin McManus, Ashley Meade, Callie Natelli, Sarah Newhart (all-conference), Jade O’Keefe, Kristen Shubert (all-conference), Caitlin Taddeo, Julia Uba, and Emma Wojcicki.
The junior varsity roster included the following: Deep Aluria, Samantha Bunting, Samantha Callaghan, Gabby Flynn, Abbey Halloran, Bella Maindon, Erika Miller, Katelyn Montefalco, Natalie Paré, Karissa Pfeiffer, Sophia Sarlo, Rachel Strillacci, Megan Tedeschi, Martyna Tomczyk, and Jillian Zitofsky.
Amber Thurston assisted Allenback.
For more in depth coverage, see our weekly print edition. To contact sports writer Brian Jennings, email him at BJennings@SouthingtonObserver.com.