JACKSON – Students and staff of the Jackson Liberty High School have plenty to cheer about given a recent national win by the Cheer team.
Tara Rachele, the coach of the team, is more than pleased with the accomplishment of the 14 athletes on the squad.
“Our practice routine is all music, non-stop for two minutes and 30 seconds. We practice three to four times per week, two hours per practice because their routine is high impact,” she added. “If we are off a few days it’s like starting from scratch building up their endurance. Many of our practices are off site as we compete on a spring floor so the parents pay for gym rentals.
“In between the competitive team, we are balancing spirit cheer for football and basketball seasons,” she said.
The team recently won a major tournament which tested their skills and proved quite an accomplishment. Rachele explained, “the New Jersey State competition is considered one of the hardest cheer competitions since there is so much talent throughout the state of New Jersey. The NJCDCA state event was held this year at Brookdale Community College over a two-day period.”
She said there were more than 125 cheer and dance teams competing in various divisions over the two days.
There were 75 teams competing on the first day alone and “we were the only Ocean County team to take home a first place trophy,” she said.
Rachele said, “I became the head varsity coach at Jackson Liberty in 2007. I also have an assistant coach and volunteer who were former cheerleaders of mine at Liberty.”
