Cheering Into The School Year

At St Rose School

By Eliza Hallabeck

The varsity cheerleading team at St Rose School has 23 members, who have been working on their cheers and stunts since a week before school started in August, and who now say they are excited for the rest of the school year.

Every Thursday between 3 and 4 pm the students meet with their coach, Cortni Kemlage, a fourth grade teacher at St Rose School, and the team practices its routines. The varsity team is one of two cheerleading teams at St Rose School, and its members perform at all the home varsity games for both boys’ and girls’ teams.

“I like cheering with Ms Kemlage,” said Colleen McCarthy, one of the girls on the team.

When asked what they enjoy most about being cheerleaders at the school, most of the girls said practicing with Ms Kemlage, or they said performing stunts was the best part.

“My favorite cheer is Dynamite,” said Hailey Ryan, one of the two captains for the varsity team.

Ms Kemlage said the entire team has taken to the cheer Dynamite, and it is a big crowd pleaser at the games.

“This is the first year we have had such a big team,” Ms Kemlage said.

This is Ms Kemlage’s fourth year being the cheerleading coach at the school, and she also coaches Danbury Vikings Pop Warner Cheerleading. She was a cheerleader while she was a student at Western Connecticut State University.

“I love stunting, just like they do,” said Ms Kemlage.

A few of the stunts the cheerleaders like to perform are a pyramid and a thigh stand, where one girl stands on the thighs of two other girls.

“They work really hard,” Ms Kemlage said.

The large team this year could be because a good number of the girls have been participating in cheerleading at St Rose since they were younger, and, Ms Kemlage said, some of them joined because they heard about it in class with her.

The St Rose School cheerleading team was the first Catholic school a couple years ago in the area to have a pep squad, which has second and third grade students on it, and now other schools have them, according to Ms Kemlage.   

Ms Kemlage said being on the team helps the students to develop self confidence, and having some of the girls in her class helps her to watch how the girls are participating in school.

“To see the difference between how they are in the classroom is a really nice transition,” said Ms Kemlage.