North Stars make another trip to state finals

Different can be a good thing.

In the case of the St. Charles North cheerleading team, different has turned into a great thing.

The North Stars' 3-minute routine is based on a musical theme. The routine incorporates music from different musicals, including "Phantom of the Opera" and "Hairspray."

"The music is a lot different," said St. Charles North senior co-captain Allison Martin, who has been on the team four years. "Nobody else has the kind of music we do. It brings a different kind of routine to the floor."

And the audience in Bloomington this weekend will get a firsthand look at the North Stars, who will be competing in the IHSA competitive cheerleading state finals at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

The North Stars are making their third straight state finals trip. The team will compete in the coed division this year after qualifying for state the previous two years in the large varsity division. St. Charles North finished 15th in the large varsity competition in 2006 and 16th in 2007.

"We've got a lot of personalities on the team," said St. Charles North coach Bethany Herrera. "All of them are extremely outgoing and smiley all the time. When they take the floor they captivate everybody's attention. They draw attention."

Senior co-captain Ali Johnston labels the team as "pretty goofy and very energetic." Those traits, she said, have really hit home with judges and audiences.

"We're very different from other cheerleading routines," Johnston said. "We're very high energy and we can relate to families. We have a very fun routine."

"We do a good job of getting the crowd involved," Martin said. "We get the crowd as excited as we can from the start. That is what separates the stronger teams. That's what makes our routine stand out."

Martin has noticed an added closeness with this year's squad.

"We've been doing better working as a team and putting our best performance out there," said Martin. "We've got a lot of talent on the team. It's all coming together. We've been able to improve a lot more this year."

Johnston likes the added coed element. The lone male cheerleader on the team is junior Jesse Jones.

"Jesse adds a lot of strength," Johnston said. "We can do a lot more with the routine. There are a lot more things you can incorporate with a boy."

Herrera said Jones has, "the highest round-off layout you've ever seen."

While the North Stars --whose routine also features all 20 cheerleaders tumbling at once -- are in the state finals for a third time, they'd like to take things farther this year and advance to Saturday's final round. The top 10 teams qualify for Saturday action.

"We'd like to place in the top 10 (today)," said Johnston. "We've never made it to the second round. That's one of our biggest goals -- to make it to the second day and do well. We have to go out there and go clean and make sure nothing falls and put all of our energy and strength into it and stay focused."

St. Charles North will also have two teams competing in the Illinois Cheerleading Coaches Association championships Feb. 9-10 at Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield. The North Stars will compete in the small junior varsity division and in the large varsity division.

Geneva also qualified for the large varsity competition in Springfield next weekend.

"We have a lot of strong athletes," said Geneva junior cheerleader Hana Steinke. "We all wanted to make it to state. We're like a big family. We had a lot of determination."

The Vikings have made major strides throughout the season with their stunting.

"We had girls who had never stunted before," said Geneva coach Jen Jackson. "In November we started almost from scratch in terms of stunting. Now these girls are doing those skills. They have come so far in that area. It's the biggest improvement I've seen.

"Stunting and tumbling are two of the biggest things. If you don't hit stunts, you get big chunks of points taken off and if you don't hit your tumbling passes you get points taken off. If you watch the state championship teams, stunting and tumbling are almost nonstop through their routines. The girls have come a long way."

Steinke said the new material took some getting used to.

"We had never done anything like it," Steinke said. "We've got a scale and we do 1-man twist downs now. It's a hard skill for fliers to do."

Jackson, who lauded the Ice Athletics (Naperville) and Allstar Rebels (St. Charles) facilities for their help with the development of the team's routine, has seen the group grow closer as the season has gone on.

"They really do a good job of encouraging each other," Jackson said. "It's easy to get frustrated when you aren't hitting a stunt. They've done a really good job of being focused. They've changed the whole focus of the team to competing and qualifying. They had a goal set to make it there and that's the number one thing they wanted to do."