Both the Claremont Middle School and the Stevens High School cheerleading squads placed second this weekend at their respective state championships. The middle school team competed at Nashua South High School on Saturday, and the Stevens High team competed at Pinkerton Academy on Sunday. The high school team is coached by Jennifer Ferland and assisted by her daughter, Emily Charest, who is also the head coach of the middle school team.
For SHS, in order for them to make it to the state competition, they had to place in the top five within their division at the preliminary round. The SHS cheerleaders have always made it to the state round, but have never placed higher than 5th at the end of the season. Emily Charest, on Stevens’ performance Sunday, said, “This year, we stole the show after overcoming injuries, an endless sickness and many, many changes.”
After the preliminary round, Stevens High was ranked third in Division 3, and then they went on to outscore Campbell by 8 points, and for the first time ever in Stevens High School history, the cheerleading team placed second, becoming the state runner-up in Division 3. On top of that, the girls had a high enough score to move onto New England’s, which is a competition held for the top teams in NH, VT, MA, and ME. This year, that competition will be held at Southern New Hampshire University.
When asked about her group of kids, Charest said, “We have such an amazing group of athletes that put in nothing but hard work. They all are very good students when it comes to school and most of the high school girls have jobs as well. They all do an awesome job at juggling everything and I am just so proud that all their hard work has finally been noticed and paid off.”
The captains of the high school team are Taya Simmonds (senior) and Leeann McCarthy (junior).
As for Ferland, her cheerleading career started when she was a four-year Varsity cheerleader at Stevens High School from 1979-1983. On her coaching career, Ferland said, “I always wanted to be a teacher and in my case it is teaching girls how to be school-spirited, dedicated cheerleaders. In 1986, I came home and began working as a Claremont School district substitute teacher and I also began my coaching career under the direction of Athletic Director Les Greene. I coached both fall and winter teams from 1986-1993. I took a break for a few years while my three children were little and family was my main focus. I came back to coach again from 1997-2000 and then from 2005-2009. Stevens Cheer Team is my passion. I thought in 2009 I was done with my coaching career but just can’t seem to stay away. Again, I took over the team in January 2015 and am loving every minute of it.”
Charest also cheered at Stevens High School from 2012-2014, and then cheered one year at SNHU in 2014 and also one year at Keene State College in 2015.
Ferland and her daughter Emily have been coaching together since she retained her coaching position in 2015. This is Ferland’s 20th year coaching the SHS cheer program, and the mother-daughter duo hope to build on this season’s efforts moving on to New England’s and for more seasons to come.
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