Athletes of the Week: The Fort Lee Cheerleaders

For many years, there has been a long-standing argument on whether cheerleading is actually a sport. No matter which side of the argument you may sit on, it may be difficult to argue against the case that the Fort Lee High School Cheerleaders have made for this weekly honor.

For the third time in school history, the Lady Bridgemen won a title at the Eastern Cheer Association National Championships in Williamsburg, Va.

With the highest national score at the event across each division, all 18 girls on the Fort Lee team were also named to the All-American Team, something that has never been accomplished before in program history.

For all of those reasons, the Lady Bridgemen Cheerleaders have been named the Fort Lee Patch Athletes of the Week.

“In 24 years of coaching, I have never seen a cheerleader as Athlete of the Week,” said the girls’ coach Nina Anderson. “Considering that cheerleading is not a sport, we are an athletic activity, I think it is great that they are being recognized as athletes because they do work extremely hard, if not harder than some of the other sports in our school.”

Members of the team also expressed the same viewpoint when asked about the unique honor.

“It’s amazing,” said junior captain Michelle Pepe. “It’s very nice to finally be called athletes because we are never called athletes.”

Fort Lee High School accepts the girls as athletes as the team attends athletic events throughout the year, as well as receiving letters for each season.

The girls have also been receiving more support for their accomplishments since coming home.

“It’s been great. [Mayor Mark Sokolich] called to offer his congratulations and the girls are going to be recognized at a Mayor & Council Meeting,” coach Anderson said. “Friends and family were there to greet them [upon arrival] in the parking lot. They were all honking their horns as we came in, so it was a great feeling when we came home.”

The National Championship trophy has been on display at the Lewis F. Cole Middle School last week as well as Fort Lee High School this week.

After overcoming obstacles throughout the year, with a few players leaving the squad, and others sidelined with injuries, the Fort Lee cheerleaders triumphed when it mattered most.

The team changed routines constantly and had very few full practices together before the championship competition on April 2.

But now the team has full, lasting memories of a National Championship.

“We were just the closest team as the year went by,” said senior captain Elizabeth Pavlov.

And as the years pass, these 18 girls will forever be linked to the 2011 title that they won together.

Here are your Athletes of the Week:

Judy Ahn, Melanie Blitz, Alyssa Bonardi, Victoria Chang, Jessie Cohen, Kayla Cruz, Michelle Dean, Donna Hong, Nadine Jun, Hailey Klein, Uliana Kolobkova, Erike Morishita, Elizabeth Pavlov, Michelle Pepe, Jelenda Sutovic, Milica Sutovic, Maria Vega, and Callie Weinstein.