Not only is the Fenwick High School cheerleading team rooting its football and basketball teams on to victories, it is also enjoying success in competition.
In the 40th Illinois Cheerleading Coaches Association Championships held in Springfield, Jan. 11, the Friars finished sixth in the medium varsity division. It is the program’s fourth consecutive Top 10 finish. More impressively, it is also the only four times Fenwick has qualified for the finals.
“Our success is a mixture of hard work, dedication, and complete trust in one another,” said Fenwick coach Carlotta Fleming, a 2013 alum who has led the program for those four seasons. “When taking over, I was very open about the hard work that was expected of each team member as well as pointing out the incredible confidence they deserve to have. I was blessed to have athletes buy in and head straight to work.”
Fenwick has 11 members on the varsity cheer team: seniors Kimberly Alvarez and Viktoria Castillo; juniors Johanna Giuffre, Nicole Jasinski, and Ella Mindak; sophomores Simone Black, Giada DeCola, Amanda Imburgia, Gracelyn Mindak, and Emily Pryzbyiski; and freshman Amiyah Buford.
“Instead of captains, we instruct that our seniors are the leaders of the team, and they’re to lead by example and be cheerleaders for the underclassmen,” Fleming said. “I am so lucky to have Kim and Vicky be incredibly talented and kind leaders that each girl can work with and look up to.”
Both Alvarez and Castillo credit good chemistry as one of the reasons for Fenwick’s success.
“This year is the closest our team has ever been in all four years of my Fenwick experience,” Alvarez said, “and I would not trade it for the world.”
“I have never been on a team as close as this one,” Castillo said. “Our success has come from supporting each other and the friendships we have with one another.”
Fleming got her coaching start as a Fenwick cheerleader, helping coach the Melrose Park Gaels. She participated in the cheer club at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and upon graduation spent a year coaching the dance team at Trinity High School.
“[Coach Fleming] has helped me more than all my past coaches,” Alvarez said. “Her way of coaching allows me and the other girls on our team to go to her for anything. She’s like a second mother to me.”
“She is the kindest and most understanding coach I’ve ever had,” added Castillo. “She’s also very approachable and I know I can talk to her about anything. She really knows how to lead a team and how to build up our confidence when we go out and perform.”
One thing Fleming is most proud of is how her girls have been able to sustain success in both competitions and the classroom.
“This fall, our seniors finished the semester with a 4.19 grade point average,” she said. “Eight of our athletes are in honors and AP (Advanced Placement) classes, and 90% of the team is on the honor roll.”
The next goal for the Friars is to place at the IHSA state meet. The program has not advanced downstate since 2013.
“Our biggest goal is to qualify for state and hopefully compete at the finals as well,” Castillo said. “We’ve made changes to our choreography in order to increase our score and we’ve been drilling our routines a lot.”
Alvarez added that Fenwick can achieve its goal “by continuing to practice to the best of our ability and not let anything get in our way.”
Fleming is also thinking about the future.
“Each spring, we host our incoming freshmen workshop,” she said. “We do summer camps with grade-schoolers from the area, and each summer our fall team attends the National Cheerleading Association speed camp — a traditional cheer camp where we stimulate competition against other schools and are coached by the best college athletes and coaches from around the nation. All of these elements put together help to ensure that each year our team grows and gets better.”
