Members of the Biddeford cheerleading team perform at the Class A South regional championships on Saturday. JOURNAL TRIBUNE PHOTO
Biddeford coach Debbie Lebel was proud of her team’s performance on the big stage, and felt that it was its best showing of the season.
“If you had asked me this on the first competition I would’ve said absolutely it was a surprise. We’ve improved every week, we’re getting a little bit better every time so it’s good. They’re very talented for sure, they work well together,” said Lebel. “That’s the best they’ve done so far … it hadn’t hit since day one but they hit it on Saturday. Not perfect but they did a really, really good job.”
Lebel was also proud to see her team battle through adversity and improve throughout the year.
“We’ve had our injuries like any other team. We’ve had a concussion, an ankle sprain, a shoulder problem. From the start we haven’t had a full team until last week,” said Lebel.
The Tigers finished fourth at regionals last winter and ninth at the state competition. Lebel feels that experience in the underclassmen as well as the leadership of the captains have helped this squad take the next step.
“I had a lot of freshman last year and they were definitely a strong group. They moved up as sophomores and I think they’re a good bunch. They get along great and that has a lot to do with it,” said Lebel. “I have two great captains (in Chanelle Chretien and Lydia Gordon), they’re great leaders.”
Lebel hopes to see the group perfect its routine in the next two weeks and qualify for the New England competition.
“They feel better about hitting this routine so we’re just going to keep plugging at it. We’re just going to go out there and have fun and hope to move up a little bit in our score. We have room for improvement, there’s no doubt there,” said Lebel. “If we can finish top three to make it to New England’s I know the team would be ecstatic, I know the community would back us up 100 percent.”
— Associate Sports Editor Alex Sponseller can be reached at asponseller@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.
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