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Youth Cheerleading Regroups, with an Eye on Boosting a Flagging Varsity Program
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Under new leadership, youth cheerleading in New Canaan is finding its way out of a rather dark period of infighting, free-for-all amateur coaching and, among older middle-school aged girls, a lack of excitement and incentive to continue in the sport, officials in the program say. Led since last summer by a certified coach who is injecting the program with more fun events, a first-ever awards ceremony, recruiting strategy, closer alignment with youth football and focus on fundamentals, one of the largest groups of cheerleaders that New Canaan has seen in some time is coming up through the pipeline. “If we don’t clean up the youth side, you are never going to have a high school program, so we are cleaning up and made huge strides,” said Sondra Banford, youth cheer coordinator in New Canaan. “Our major goal is to create a cheer family.”
As Banford alluded, the boost in cheerleading at the middle school level couldn’t come at a better time for a high school program whose numbers are decidedly down. Athletic Director Jay Egan said the goal typically is to have 18 to 20 girls on the cheerleading squad, and that currently it’s down to 10 or 11.