Township council honored four youth cheerleading squads during its July 15 meeting for their performances at the Orlando National Cheerleading competition in May.
“We want to take this opportunity to congratulate our township cheer, who won first-place awards in the national contest earlier this year,” said council Vice President Donald Brown.
The squads competed against youth cheerleading teams from across the country. The township’s winners are Team Revolution, which took first place in the tiny division for kids ages 5 to 6; Team Rebels, first place in the mini-division for kids 6 to 8; Team Blaze, third place in the peewee division for ages 9 to 12; and Team Ignite, first place in the youth division of kids 6 to 12.
Council members handed out certificates, custom water bottles and gift cards from Rita’s Water Ice to the cheerleaders in attendance, who were accompanied by coaches, friends and family.
The teams competed in different specialties, such as choreographed dances, stunts, synchronized flips and special jumps. They were graded based on the difficulty of the routines, technique and overall execution.
Some council members traveled to Orlando in May to attend the competition in person; one of them was Council President Peter Del Borrello. He unveiled a custom Washington Township cheer uniform made by the township’s MBM Sports decked out in the cheerleading organizations’ colors of red and blue.
Del Borrello playfully did a cartwheel after pictures were taken at the meeting.
“We had such a good time,” he noted. “For my birthday, they AI-ed this picture of me for being a big supporter of them.”
The photo showed Del Borrello in the cheer uniform, the same one he wore to the meeting.
“I gotta be honest,” he continued, “this outfit is so comfortable, I might just forget the suit and wear this every single day. So, shoutout to MBM for putting this together. It looks awesome.”
A brief intermission followed the presentation of the cheerleading certificates so the girls could celebrate with their families.
The next township council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 6 p.m.
Four cheerleading teams are shown with council during its July 15 meeting, where the teams were honored for their performances at a national competition.
