Squad is excited to be a part of Ski-Hi Stampede

MONTE VISTA — Monte Vista Mini Cheerleaders Coach Jessica Ornelas is excited about the growth of the program.

“We are excited and can’t believe how the squad has grown,” Ornelas said. “We went from having five girls last year to having 26 girls this year. These girls are having fun and ready to cheer. We have a lot of fun planned for them and can’t wait to see how everything goes this year.”

The mini cheerleading team was started last year, in collaboration with the City of Monte Vista, as an effort to incorporate the schools and directly help families in the community by providing an avenue with potential growth to build a middle school cheerleading team and help future high school cheerleaders as well.

Kharesa Rivera, Genny Emmons and Ornelas are the head coaches for the squad. They started out with two cheer coaches but expanded to three with the addition of 21 girls.

“As our cheerleading squad grew, we grew as well. We are excited to be a part of Stampede again this year, and be in the parade,” said Ornelas. “Last year there were only five girls. We got together and were able to make a float. We made a pirate ship out of cardboard and newspapers. We had canons, we made a pirate ship with water, we made a sail out of a tire ring and a laundry basket. We had a pirate flag with swords on it. We worked late nights for two weeks on this, at my grandma’s house actually. We had an assembly line done and we made outfits for the girls with our circuit machine as well. Last year we had limited resources but with fundraising we were able to make everything work. This year’s parade theme is ‘Grow Something Greater,’ we are looking forward to having our girls dress like flowers for the parade and with the expansion of our team we have certainly grown something greater, that we are really proud of.”

Ornelas said that last year the girls participated in a high school cheerleading camp, where they received a discounted rate of $15 per girl. The girls said they loved the camp and will be participating again but will be paying the regular rate of $50 per girl thanks to a grant the team received.

Rivera said the girls are looking forward to the camp and the parade this year. With the group's expansion, the coaches spoke to Ivette Atencio of the LOR Foundation and obtained grant money to help them purchase uniforms. The grant money would also help fund other things for the girls, including the camp.

“We are very happy that we were able to obtain this grant for the kids,” Rivera said. “We are waiting for the uniforms that we ordered and hoping they come in before the Stampede Parade, if they don’t, we do have a backup plan. We put in blood, sweat, and tears with the girls and don’t mind doing it at all. They are picking up the cheer routines so well, and we are excited to have the girls show everyone. The main thing is we want them to enjoy themselves. We enjoy this, we are thinking because there are so many kids involved that we may just split the girls up when we take them to cheer. Since the middle school has no cheerleaders, we want to try to take them to those games. We also have the girls scheduled to do their first performance at the upcoming car show in August. We are looking forward to making our community smile with our squad and cannot wait to see what else we do this year.”

Emmons said squad feels more like family than just a squad.

“Our kids are in the mini cheerleading team as well. This team is more than just a cheerleading team, we are like family too,” Emmons said. “We are all former cheerleaders and it’s nice to share that special bond with our daughters. We do things outside of the cheer team too, it really is like having another family. I moved here a year ago, and being a part of this really makes me feel like I belong somewhere. I am hoping that our squad feels the same way. The relationship that these girls build here will really carry on through the rest of their school days. We want to make this as positive for the kids as possible. We also want to make our community smile too. We are so excited about our upcoming events. It’s great to be a part of this amazing team.”

For more information on the squad, contact Ornelas through her Facebook page.