Cheer wins Nationals for the first time. The Irish Cup Rivalry

Teams Play for Peace

Sion and St. Teresa’s will participate in the Irish Cup as a fundraiser for Children for Peace.

BY ALEX D’ALESIO REPORTER

Candy cane footie pajamas and Playtex binkyholding fans give life to the yellow bleachers. Spirited chants dance throughout the air.

“Roll it and shake it. Victory let’s take it.”

As halftime approaches, spectators rush to snag their coveted bag of tasty Sour Patch Kids at the concession stand before the lines transform into a never-ending train crossing Martin City.

The primary basketball matchup between the Sion Storm and the St. Teresa’s Stars generates an overarching sense of familiarity. While the Stars, racked up 57 points to 43 and claimed the victory, this was not the final showdown.

Next meeting between the two friendly rivals will be on home turf Feb. 26. While this promises to engender the typical rivalry, it comprises a different underlying significance that might not be as familiar to students.

At the end of this game, one team will be presented a crystal cup, otherwise known as the Irish Cup.

Since 2008, the annual basketball game has served as a fundraiser benefiting Children for Peace in Ireland, a program that brings Protestant and Catholic teenagers from Belfast to Kansas City for two weeks during the summer. This year’s goal is $750. Last year brought in $550.

Started in 1998 by Athletic Director Dennis Conaghan and Tom Quinn of the Ancient Order of

The music booms from the loud speakers that encircle the team. They check to make sure their purple bows sit comfortably and securely in their hair. With bent heads and sweaty palms, some try to imagine their routine one last time, others doing last minute stretches.

All the girls are mentally preparing themselves for the moment they have been training for since cheer tryouts eight months earlier.

A loud voice announces, “Now performing, Sion cheer team.” At their cue, they run to center stage.

The cheer team placed first at the National Cheerleading Association High School Open Nationals in St. Louis, Missouri Jan. 18. Others attending the competition inlcuded schools from New Jersey, Illinois and even Texas.

“We were just going there to have a good experience,” senior co-captain Courtney Linscott Hibernians, the program aims to help kids realize the common history in the struggle for peace and civil rights. In doing so, it also provides them with the tools to abridge their differences and tackle any obstacle to peace.

“They have something called peace walls in Belfast,” Conaghan said. “Behind these peace walls, however, there is not peace - these are the segregated neighborhoods of either the Protestants or the Catholics.”

Today, an immense amount of prejudice corrupts Belfast, Conaghan said. In fact, there is such a large amount that he equates being a Catholic resident in Ireland to being black during the 1960s in Selma, Alabama.

However, in bringing the kids to Kansas City, CFP aspires to show them that no discrimination separates a Protestant from a Catholic in America, imbuing in them a sense of hope.

“I didn’t ask [the religion of] who I hosted,” senior Maria Wagner said. “It doesn’t matter to us whether they are Protestant or Catholic. We show them that we accept all diversity.”

Before becoming a part of Children for Peace, the majority of these Protestant and Catholic teenagers have never met or talked to someone of the opposite faith.

According to Conaghan, over 90 percent of the schools in Belfast are either 100 percent Catholic or 100 percent Protestant. Therefore, the organization strives to make such peace in diversity a familiarity for them.

In order to create this familiarity; however, the organization relies strongly on game attendance, since the Irish Cup does serve as a major fundraiser. said. “Because this was our first time, we just thought whatever happens, happens.”

The team is under the direction of new coach Lisa Lauck who led the team to its first national victory. Knowing that the team wanted to be competitive, Lauck entered them in the regional and state competitions. They eventually qualified for state, and then entered the national meet to compete at the NCA event.

“I knew that the team never really did any competition before and that it was a goal and aspiration they had to be competitive so it started with regionals, then state, and then nationals,” Lauck said. “Their regionals routine was the only team who didn’t have any penalties so I knew they were solid performers, but going to nationals is grander than competing locally.”

According to Lauck, a team that has not been competitive in the past has to focus on a goal of clean routines, hitting stunts and everything that goes with that before winning for the first year.

Linscott has seen the positive transformation of cheer team from her freshmen to senior year.

“It’s amazing to see where we have come since

Junior Camille Keane drives by the St. Teresa’s players to go into the paint for a lay-up. (Photo by Sydney

A New Era of Excellence

The cheer team takes on Nationals for the first time in history.

BY MEGHAN KEARNEY

REPORTER

10LE JOURNAL FEBRUARY

Manning)

The team performed at the Parent’s Showcase before nationals. (Photo by Maddy Lewing)

freshmen year [when] we could barely do anything to now,” Linscott said. “The fact that we are just competing in general and that we did so well is a huge change and I’m so happy that we could go through everything, even when it was bad, just makes this win so much better.”

Lauck only believes that there is no where to go but up.

“[We will ] continue to push ourselves at competition, push ourselves to learn stunts and themes and just wow the crowd. That’s the most important part,” Lauck said. “Cheer our teams and wow the crowd.”