It has been a long time since the Newburgh Free Academy competition cheerleading team competed against other schools.

That finally happened on Jan. 15 when the Goldbacks took first place at the Viking Pride cheerleading competition at Valley Central High School.

“I felt like it was kind of nerve wracking at first, but then I remember that I’ve done this before and I know the feeling,” senior captain Grace Flynn said. “Obviously, it’s a little bit different because of COVID but once I got on the mat, I remembered how it feels and I felt great.”

The team’s other senior captain, Carly Parodo, was just excited to be back on the mat after so long a time.
The feeling was a little different for junior Kailyn Turner, who was competing for the first time and said she was terrified.

“It was just the idea of being on the mat in front of a bunch of people watching,” Turner said. “Before I got out there, I felt like I forgot the whole routine. I was just really nervous, and your mind goes blank.”

The Goldbacks competed again on Jan. 22 at the Battle of the Bows at Warwick High School, where they finished third.

The competition season was originally scheduled to start in December, but the cheerleaders were relieved to have their competitions put off until the start of 2022.

Turner said she was happy the first competitions were canceled.

“We had more time to practice so when we did go on the mat, we would be really good,” she said.
Parodo said the Goldbacks would have been unprepared if they had to compete in December.

“We had a lot of quarantines on the team in December,” coach Chelsea Williams said. “I think post-Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas, which was the time when we had the most folks shifting in and out.”
Unlike other sports, where you can just swap in another player, if even one cheerleader is missing, it could cause aspects of the routine to need to be reconfigured on the fly.

The team finished its competition season in 2019-20, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they didn’t take the field again until the spring when football resumed for the 2021 Fall 2 season in March and April. They were able to get in some summer workouts and Williams said the fall season was “fantastic.”

“We were a very healthy team in the fall, which was great,” Williams said. “We didn’t have much quarantining happen and most of what we were doing was outdoors.”

There was some shifting as the team headed into the winter season as the masks had to go on, and cheerleaders moved in and out of quarantine as the Omicron variant became more prevalent.

Cheerleading also didn’t suffer the numbers drop that some other sports that missed seasons have suffered.

About 70 students tried out for the winter season and between the competition and gameday teams, there were only about 30 spots.

Yes, there are two winter cheerleading teams. The competition team and the gameday cheer team, which attends basketball games.

Some schools have one team do both. Not Newburgh.

“That would be insane, and I don’t know how other schools do it,” Williams said. “It really is an intense commitment to do both.”

Plus, having separate squads also allows Newburgh to double their number of cheerleaders. Williams has also doubled the number of games the gameday team cheers at as the gameday team cheers at both boys’ and girls’ basketball games, which she said, “seems fair and equitable.”

The season is not finished as the Goldbacks will have another competition on Saturday at Monroe-Woodbury and then the Section 9 championships on Feb. 19.

But no matter what happens, the cheerleaders appreciate their sport more now that they know what it’s like to not have it for nearly two years.

Parodo is grateful, even if they only have the two already completed competitions.

“I appreciate it a lot more,” Flynn said. “There are so many things that are getting canceled or changed and I’m just glad to be here because cheer is something that I love to do, and it’s happening so I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.”