St. Joseph lands back-to-back national titles
Team also served as Bosco football cheerleaders during '22 national crown season
LAKEWOOD » St. Joseph High School song team senior captains Ava Reyes and Lucia Myhre said it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be backto-back national champions.
“We had our goal set from the beginning of the year,” said Reyes, before breaking down the team's four-day-a-week practice schedule, which includes a summer conditioning program.
“Coming off of winning last year, we knew the other teams would be out to get us so we just made sure to work really hard and it ended up paying off in the end,” Myhre added.
The St. Joseph song team competed in the USA Nationals at the Anaheim Convention Center on Feb. 25-26.
The school's varsity team won back-to-back national titles in the small school song/pom advanced division.
“A song competition is more of the dancing style, where cheer is more of the basing and stunting and tumbling,” Reyes explained. “We learn how to work with each other, we learn how to solve problems. We know what we want and we know how to get there and we have to work to get there so I think that in the end, it's definitely a sport.”
“It's just as much of a team effort as other sports . ... It's just as much a time commitment as other sports, an athletic commitment,” Myhre added. “We run, we work out, we do pilates so we're putting just as much work in and our work is paying off in our dynamic as a team from how close we are and our performances.”
The varsity team is coached by Stacy Bang, who has now been a part of eight USA national championship titles.
“I am honored to be part of the success of the song program at St. Joseph High School,” Bang said. “I am thrilled to have taken the varsity team not only to the advanced level but have won at that level for two years in a row. We will continue to hold ourselves to the highest standards in hopes of bringing home more national championship titles in the future.”
Bang said the school's junior varsity song team, which is coached by Jasmine Ben, a 2017 St. Joseph alum, also won a national title in the small school song/pom intermediate division.
Varsity team members said Bang is a supreme motivator.
“This year, Stacy has been our biggest motivation,” Myhre shared. “She knew coming off of last year that we would be kind of stressed and wanting to do our best, and this year was also our first year going to Florida for (competition) so she made sure to push us to be our best and it really showed off this year because she was really there for us and it showed in our performance.”
Myhre and Reyes were also proud to support their “brother school” as cheerleaders during St. John Bosco's 2022 national championship season in football.
“We were on a high this year, especially with Bosco winning, we wanted to keep the trend going,” Myhr said. “It feels good to have a clean sweep this year.”
Reyes and Myhre said they both plan to join dance teams in college next year, and they hope St. Joseph's underclassmen can make it a threepeat next year.
“I know that they are capable of doing so,” Reyes concluded.