Cheers for Some Champion Girls . . . Longwood JV best in U.S.: [NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition]

By Joe Krupinski. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 04 Feb 1990

Keeping in mind how teenage boys generally hate to say anything nice about their kid sisters, Longwood High School’s junior varsity cheerleaders received the ultimate compliment during a workout the other day as they prepared to compete for another national championship in Florida this week.

“She’s an athlete,” said Bobby Drago, a junior wrestler at Longwood, referring to his sophomore sister, Karen, one of the cheerleaders. “She has her friends over and they’re always practicing. She keeps jumping and moving even when she’s eating dinner or folding her clothes.”

In case you haven’t noticed, those cheerleaders he’s talking about have come a long way, baby. No longer is a pretty face and a cute figure enough to earn a cherished spot on a high school cheerleading team. Strength and stamina – as well as coordination, balance and rhythm – are more important criteria nowadays.

Because cheerleading is now considered a sport in itself, many Long Island schools have regular tryouts. Longwood, for instance, drew more than 100 students to last spring’s tryout – more than the girls soccer, softball, basketball or volleyball teams.

“The only ones to make it years ago were the girls whose sisters were cheerleaders or who lived next door to cheerleaders,” said coach Donna Beary, who did her own high school cheerleading at St. Dominic’s in Oyster Bay, where her father, Tom Capozzoli, was the longtime football coach. “Now we hold two weeks of tryouts so that everybody has an ample chance to show what they can do. It gives us a better team.”

Longwood’s commitment to the athletic style of cheerleading reached a peak in 1987 when its girls began attending cheerleading camps sponsored by the International Cheerleading Foundation in upstate Troy and by the Universal Cheerleading Foundation at SUNY-Stony Brook.

“There’s none of that `stamp, clap, rah, rah’ stuff,” Beary said. “They showed us things we never knew about precision, synchronization and popping your moves without shaking. And we learned how to do all of the gymnastics more efficiently and more safely.”

While it takes most cheerleading teams a long time to switch from one formation to another, Longwood is proud of its ability to form “two single liberty pyramids in seven seconds,” Beary said. “People always come up to us and say, `Your girls go non-stop.’ They also think we have the highest all-girl basket tosses they’ve ever seen.”

Longwood’s athletes reached their peak at the ICF championships in Nashville, Tenn., last December. With 200 high schools competing from around the country – 46 in their own division – the Lionesses wowed the judges with their routine, which included a double-length “Roger Rabbit” dance move that nobody had ever seen before.

At the close of competition, the announcement of the order of finish seemed interminable. Since the defending champions from Tomball, Texas, and several other Southern teams were heavily favored, Longwood’s girls barely hoped to break into the top 10.

“They went 10, 9, 8, and we didn’t hear our name,” Karen Drago said. “When they got down to 4 and 3, we were heartbroken. Then they said, `The winner, from Middle Island, New York . . . well, we never even heard the rest. We got hysterical.”

At Longwood the cheerleaders are invited to the same awards dinner as the football players and the wrestlers. But, unlike the other sports, there’s no most valuable player. “I don’t see how I could pick one over another,” coach Beary said.

A kindergarten teacher in the district, Beary has three cheerleading daughters. Kristin, 15, is on her JV team. Kim, 13, captains the eighth-grade team. And Kacy, 10, cheers with the Longwood Youth Association, a sort of Little League farm team being developed for future championships.

“We recently put on an exhibition at a `Say No to Drugs’ program,” Beary said, “and, from the looks in those little girls’ eyes as they watched us, I think we’ll have a lot of new cheerleading recruits for years to come.”

Whenever 12 or 15 of Beary’s girls jam into her Isuzu Trooper for a ride home after practice, they feel like an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. “We all call her `mom’ because we see her more than our own mothers,” said co-captain Gina DeGennaro, referring to the practices that last up to three or four hours several times a week. “She’s a tough coach, but it pays off. Her favorite saying is, `Do it my way now – or my way later.”

The practice schedule leaves barely enough time for anything else but dinner, some homework and bed. “My mother loves it because my phone bill is way down,” said Marissa DeLena.

The camaraderie among the girls is evident. “We have pool parties and sleepovers together,” co-captain Kristin Doepp said. “There’s no bickering. We all get along.” Britt Hazan, an only child, says it’s like having 17 sisters. And those same teammates will make up half the guest list for Nicole Templo’s forthcoming “Sweet 16” party.

Occasionally, just as a football lineman sometimes wishes he could be a running back, the girls wish they could play another part in a cheerleading formation that includes bases, mounters and tumblers.

“The grass is always greener on the other side,” said Christina Taliercio, a base. “But, usually, we all know what we’re the best at.” * * *