Hopedale Cheer Team to Participate in the Dual Valley Conference

Although the Hopedale Cheerleaders have been supporting the rest of the school’s sports over the past few years they had not competed in quite some time; that was until late last year.
“It was our first competition in six years; the Hockomock League Invitational in Foxboro,” Hopedale Coach Amy Lombardi said. “The Invitational was the last one of the season, so while it was our first everyone else had already competed all year long.”
Participating in their first competition in over half a decade Lombardi felt her squad represented Hopedale with pride finishing fourth out of six teams. This winter the Blue Raider Cheerleaders will not only cheer the Hopedale basketball teams on but will participate in the Dual Valley Conference (DVC) giving the squad to potential to take their talents to the Regionals and possibly the States.
Taking part in the DVC, Hopedale will go up against Blackstone Millville Regional, Sutton and Dudley, teams they feel they can compete with on a high level.
“Throughout the year we’ll cheer one basketball game (girls or boys) each week bringing excitement to the game,” Lombardi said. “In addition we’ll be putting together a strong competition team that will measure up to the rest of the league.”
Lombardi will be getting help from her daughter Dena, a Hopedale alumni and cheerleader at Johnson and Wales University. The mother / daughter duo will look to put together a routine that is much more competitive than anything they’ve done over the past few years.
The squad will be led by Captains Melanie Farina, a returning captain from last year’s team, who will back spot; sophomore flyer Aliyah Waldo and junior flyer Krista Keene. All three captains all bring something different to the field.
“Melanie, who has been cheering all her life, brings a lot of knowledge, while Aliyah, another lifelong cheerer, has crazy tumbling skills and Krista is the one who gets the other girls motivated,” Lombardi said. “Being in our first year in the DVC the captains are going to be the ones to bring their experience and get us to that next level; putting Hopedale’s name out in terms of cheering.”
Other girls who will be looking to put Hopedale on the cheering map will be juniors Ashley Fafard (back spot) and Valerie Tapanainen (base); eighth graders Angelina Lombardi (base), Caroline Gosselin (front spot), Ashley MacDonald (base) and Kiarra Ortla (flyer); sophomore newcomers Julia Mason (base) and Gianna Rampello (front spot). Mason is new to cheering all together but is a team player and willing to learn, while Rampello is new to Hopedale having cheered for Pop Warner previously.
Having the mix of old and young girls gives Hopedale a nice cohesive unit that has seemed to work well together so far during the early stages of the season.
“In the past we have been competitive against two of the three DVC teams that we have gone up against,” Lombardi said. “We just need to work on putting together a routine that includes a higher level of stunts if we want to be successful.”
Although Hopedale will be on the sidelines of basketball games right away they will not be participating in competitive contests for another three months when they travel to Shepard Hill in mid-February.