Bellingham Cheer Falls Short of State Title but Wins Bid to Nationals

By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

For the first time in school history Bellingham captured the Division 4 State Cheerleading Championships last year, and under the guidance of Coach Tracey Elliott and her assistant Reymi Vargas (a member of the Framingham State Cheer team) the Blackhawks completed another competitive season.

Enroute to last year’s State Championship, Bellingham first captured the Tri-Valley League Title and then took home the trophy for the South Division before eventually grabbing the ultimate title.

“We’ve finished in second place a couple of times before, but we’d never won the States,” the seventh year Bellingham Coach said. “To do so was pretty exciting.”

Following their State Championship, Bellingham was able to attend the Nationals in Florida, where they finished fourth. At the prestigious event, Bellingham was able to see teams that were much higher than their Division 4 status.

This year, the Blackhawks competed without half of the squad that accomplished the first time happening, but according to Elliott that’s nothing new. Having such a small team to begin with year in and year out, the Coach expects to lose a good number of her athletes on a regular basis.

“Cheer is not a high priority sport in Bellingham, but I also set very high expectations and goals each year,” Elliott said. “Coming into the season, it’s not what a lot of them expect when they join. We don’t just cheer for football and basketball – it’s a lot more than that. We compete with a jampacked 2 ½ minute routine that not only has cheering, but tumbling, dancing, and stunting. We go out and do the best that we can with what we have.”

Co-Captains senior Julianna Buckley and junior Madison Elliott lead the team on and off the court. Both are members of the National Honor Society and are strong captains using what they learned from past captains.

High in the air beside Elliott, freshman Abigail Walker will be the team’s other flyer. Other girls competing on the mat for the Blackhawks are freshman Sierra D’Arrigo (base and tumbler), junior Nicole Thomas (base), junior Taylor Lavallee (blackspot), senior Reilly Sousa (base and tumbler), freshman Natalie Doran (front base and tumbler) and sophomore Marissa Dell (base and tumbler). Lavallee and Doran were both named to the TVL All-Star team last year.

Alternate athletes for Bellingham are Molly Leonard, Lily Crawford, Josie Shoaf and Kiera Daly.

Since she became the Bellingham cheer coach, Elliott has looked for her teams to improve and take their competing to the next level.

“I’ve tried to slowly build this team each and every year since I took over,” the Coach said. “During that time, we’ve won 6 TVL Championships, and now a Division 4 State Championship. We go up against some very tough teams each year, and we’re hoping to match up with them on a regular basis.”

Thus far this year, Bellingham has done quite well in their competition; they finished second at Milford, took third in Billerica, grabbed the TVL League Championship once again and finished in first at Sheppard Hill, where they also were named the Grand Champion (posted the highest score of all 30 plus teams in all divisions).

On November 5th, the team placed second in the Regionals with the highest score in Bellingham High School cheer history, missing first place by a tenth of a point. Following that competition, they returned to the State Tournament, but this year placed 5th among fierce competition, with the top five teams all placing within three points of each other. 

“Unfortunately, you can’t control the scoring – you can just go out and do your best,” said Elliott. “That’s what they did. They were amazing. They got a very high score, and they got their bid to nationals, which will take place in March.”