Originally published February 12, 2008

North girls win OAA cheer title again

By Dan O’Meara

Staff Writer

The members of the
championship North Farmington competitive cheer team are (front row, left
to right) Brittni Washington, Blair Burns, Ally Velick, Taylor Young, Abby Soble,
Paige Norwick, Shelby Thomas, Carly
Simaan, Patricia Bratuianu,
Kesia Washington, Katie Applebaum,
captain Nikia Washington, (second row, left to
right) Leslie Spector, Laura Sherbrook, Jaclyn Efrusy, coach Amanda O’Neill, captain Geneieve Jona, Erica Crowe
and Rachel Zapata. Not pictured is Anna Rosenhaus.

It’s not yet
time to say ‘Three cheers for the North Farmington
competitive cheer team.’ Maybe next year. For now two cheers will do
just fine.

The Raiders earned
their second straight Oakland Activities Association Division III
championship Feb. 2 in competition with five other schools at Troy.

“It’s
awesome; it’s great for the girls, and it’s great for the
school,” North coach Amanda O’Neill said. “It’s great
for the community to have a Farmington
team winning again. It’s nice to keep it in Farmington and especially at North.”

Whereas, North had a
young team last year that caught on quickly to the sport, the Raiders are a
more experienced team this year whose members know better what is expected
and how to compete.

“This is the
first year we’ve ever had seniors on the team,” O’Neill
said, adding the Raiders have six. “They’ve been there before.
They know what it takes to win now, practice-wise and performance-wise.

“I definitely expected us to be better. At the same time, you have to
expect everybody else is going to be better, too. We prepared and worked hard
to be extra better.”

North won the overall championship with 20 points, and Farmington
and Royal Oak
tied for second place with 13 apiece. Berkley,
Ferndale and Harrison
rounded out the division standings.

The six teams had three competitions; in the first two, first place was worth
five points, the third 10 points. Each competition involved three rounds with
different requirements for each one.

Though North won all three meets, it struggled in the first competition and
edged Royal Oak
by less than two points, 595.312 to 593.34. North won by 50 points over Farmington in the
second.

In the final competition Feb. 2, the Raiders had 652.3 points while Farmington nipped Royal
Oak for second by nine-plus points, 632.574 to
623.324.

“We were really
clean,” O’Neill said regarding North’s winning edge.
“In Round 3, we have stunts and tumbling, and we have two really strong
tumblers. It was a real exciting round. Everything hit and the timing was
good.”

In all three rounds of a single competition, routines are performed to the
words of a cheer. No music or props are allowed.

In Round 1, each team must include two jumps and six formation changes in its
routine. Teams can add more jumps, level changes, etc.

“The more things you do, the more points you can earn,”
O’Neill said.

The second round is a compulsory round in which team members must do the same
thing at all times. Teams have to do one jump, one tumbling skill, one flex
skill and two optional skills, but everybody on the team has to be in sync.

Round 3 is an optional round and was considered the team’s strength
last year, according to O’Neill.

“Actually, we’ve really improved in Round 1,” she said.
“This year it has taken a turn, and Round 1 has been our money
round.”

The North girls practice four days a week and two and a half hours each time.
The sport requires a lot of energy, enthusiasm, desire, strength, agility and
stamina, O’Neill added.

“The girls really push each other a lot,” she said.
“They’re definitely in it to win it and always trying to be
better than the week before. They have goals and huge aspirations.

“When they see teams that have long-running programs, they get really
inspired and want be a team on the top level. They work hard toward
that.”

Eleven of the 19 girls on the North team returned from last year. The squad
consists of seniors Patricia Bratuianu, Geneieve Jona, Anna Rosenhaus, Shelby Thomas, Kesia
Washington and Nikia Washington, juniors Jaclyn Efrusy and Laura Sherbrook, sophomores Kathleen Applebaum, Paige Norwick, Carly Simaan, Abby Soble, Leslie Spector, Taylor
Young and Rachel Zapata, freshmen Blair Burns, Erica Crowe, Ally Velick and Brittni Washington.

The Raiders, who moved up to Division 1 for the state competition, are
preparing for the March 1 regional at Brighton.
The state meet is a week later in Grand
Rapids.

There are five regions with an average of 16 teams per region, and only the
top two teams in each regional will advance to the state meet.

North is the smallest school in its region with an enrollment of 1,390 students,
just 14 over the minimum for Division 1.

“It’s going to be a challenge now that we moved up to Division 1,
but I still think we’re going to do well,” O’Neill said.
“We set a goal to be better than we were. We want to improve;
that’s all.

“We’ve been competing against bigger schools at invitationals, and we’re still holding our own and
doing a good job. We’re feeling really confident right now.”