MATT VOLZ
Asst. Sports Editor
Photo of Blue Devils Cheerleading Team | Photo By Kayla Welsh
Daytona Beach, Fla., a city known for its Atlantic Ocean coast and rich auto racing history, hosts the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) College Nationals each year.
For the second year in a row, Fredonia’s cheer squad has left Florida with a top 15 finish.
This year, the team finished ninth in the Intermediate All Girls Division III division with a final score of 86.8635, an improvement upon a 13th place finish in 2022.
But, according to senior Sam Villante, it wouldn’t be possible without teamwork and trust.
“Trust for cheer is a really big thing because you can’t do anything without your whole group or else nothing works,” Villante said.
Villante, a Rochester, N.Y., native, chose Fredonia because of its close proximity to her home and its cheer program.
“Cheer really [was] a bigger reason why I came,” she said.
Fellow senior Shay Fowler, a native of New York, N.Y., also said that cheer impacted her college decision.
“I was supposed to go out of state, but I saw that I could be seven hours away from home and still live the [college] life. … I found out that they had cheerleading, and I was like, ‘Yeah, this is where I want to be,’” Fowler said.
Villante, Fowler and Kloe Samick were the three seniors that led coach Julie Troche’s cheer squad this season.
The cheer season is different from other sports seasons, as Nationals in Daytona Beach is their only competition. The rest of the season consists mostly of sideline and halftime performances for other sports such as basketball.
Villante said that their season begins in late September and early October.
“That is mostly just getting the feel of everyone and doing game stuff,” she said. “Our practices are strictly competition based. We only compete at Nationals, but I think [coach Troche] might want to do another competition in March or something.”
Fowler added that the team used to compete in a small competition, but that changed when COVID-19 hit in 2020.
“It’s been hard to do [the competition] again,” she said.
They both agreed that competing at Nationals was stressful but fun.
“We’ll wake up at, like, 6:30 or 7 a.m. We’ll rush to eat breakfast, and then we’ll be out the door practicing in the grass,” Villante said. “It’s nice because you get to see so many other different teams and see what they have to offer.”
One of the highlights of the weekend, though, wasn’t anything that happened on stage. One of the famous teams, Navarro, from the Netflix docuseries “Cheer” stayed in the same hotel as the Blue Devils, and Villante, Fowler and the rest of the team were able to get pictures with them.
Fowler noted that she could draw inspiration from the famous team, saying, “Watching ‘Cheer’ actually helped me get my mind right and look at different things, like, ‘This is where you want to be, this is what you want to do.’ So it gave me the motivation, and regardless [of] if I feel like I can’t, I know that I can. Talking with actual people, the coaches from ‘Cheer,’ they gave me a lot of motivation. … It built my confidence.”
Villante also noted that watching “Cheer” and meeting the team reinforced the importance of teamwork.
“I feel like watching it definitely also made [me] realize how … everyone has to work together in order to succeed,” she said.
Overall, they both believe that their experiences at Nationals were some of their fondest memories from college cheer. Fowler specifically said that she loved it because in high school, she didn’t have many opportunities to compete.
“When I joined, I was just so happy to get that experience to learn everything,” Fowler said.
In May, Villante and Fowler will graduate – Villante with a degree in social work, and Fowler with a degree in liberal arts. Villante plans to pursue her master’s degree online through Syracuse University, and Fowler plans to work at a daycare center and intern at a cheerleading gym.
They both expressed interest in keeping cheerleading as a part of their lives past college, with Villante thinking about becoming a cheer judge and Fowler considering going into coaching.
Villante hopes to encourage young cheerleaders to continue with the sport.
“It’s a lot, but it’s worth it … If you’re trying to choose a school based on cheer, come to Fredonia,” Villante said. “I’ve met so many people through cheer.”
Fowler also hopes to encourage young women of color to pursue their dreams.
“I told one of the freshmen on the team, a couple of days ago actually, ‘Don’t give up. Keep fighting; you will be in that place that you want to be eventually, just keep fighting. Don’t let [anybody] downplay what you’re doing … Get in there, and don’t give up,’” she said.
Fowler also said that it was difficult for her to open up to the other cheerleaders about those things at first, but she stuck with it and “it definitely got better.”
Both Fowler and Villante feel that cheerleading at Fredonia has made a significant impact on their lives.
“I just love different people that I’ve met, and [with] all the friendships that I’ve made, I feel like it’s definitely changed my life and changed how I view things,” Villante said.
Villante added, “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get cheer out of my life. I feel like I’m always going to be doing something with cheer.”
Both Villante and Fowler expressed excitement for the future, believing that a top five finish could be possible. Fowler encouraged the younger members of the team to “keep grinding and do things they haven’t done before.”
When the Blue Devils travel to NCA College Nationals next year, they’ll be without Fowler and Villante. But, the team will always have the advice, mentorship and support that they received from their senior teammates.
Photo of seniors Shay Fowler (LEFT) and Sam Villante (RIGHT) | Photos by Kayla Welsh