WELLS— The Wells cheerleading team recently placed first in the Western Maine Conference championships. The Warrior girls have not only had fun representing their community, but are also very proud to do so.

Wells’ coach Sara Littlefield feels that this pride has been contagious throughout the entire school.

“It’s all about Warrior pride. All of the compliments we have gotten since we came back, all of the emails and congratulations. It motivates the other teams as well,” said Littlefield. “When one team does well other teams feed off of that, I remember when the football team won the state championship that was a big drive for us.”

Success is nothing new to Wells, however many of the cheerleaders feel that this year’s group has been closer than others.

“Our team has become very close. We are really focused on driving each other, especially if one of us is having a bad day,” said Cait LaChance. “We are all just trying to motivate each other to do what we have to do to make a positive and memorable experience.”

Littlefield has also noticed a lighthearted atmosphere in her team.

“As a coach, what I see different in this group is that it’s a joking family. Today instead of stretching during warmups the girls were rapping ‘Down Town,’” said Littlefield. “I think that team fun is important, it makes you want to come in here and want to practice. When it is stress free it makes it a lot easier to have fun.”

Not only has the fun factor helped the team bond, it has also helped it’s performance.

“I think one thing that has been good is the performance factor,” said Caeli Beecher. “That is what the coaches have been driving into us because we have a good time. I think people really enjoy watching us and I think that’s what sets us apart and what we have done well with this year.”

“It’s 100 percent the fun factor. We were the crowd favorite and we saw a lot of support from strangers afterwards,” added Littlefield. “Some people that didn’t know much about cheering, some people that even said that they didn’t like cheering told us that they enjoyed watching us perform.”

As the season progresses, the team is working hard to improve each day leading up to the late-season tournaments.

“I think the next few weeks will be big for the girls. Now that they have some of the score sheets and things to work on, the next two weeks will be good for us,” said Littlefield.

Casey Bernhardt believes that much of the team’s success is due to it’s focus on advancement.

“Every year we try to move up a step from the year before. We can find things to really nitpick at,” said Bernhardt. “We just try to take the things that we learned before and try to keep going at a steady pace. We want to keep moving up and up.”

The Warriors are looking to finish strong as they have their sites set on states later in the year.

“Our goal is to qualify for states, I don’t know a team that has qualified as consistently as Wells so that is always our goal,” said Littlefield. “At the end of the day though, I don’t think it’s about how you place- I think it’s about how you feel in the end.”

“We want to get more patches. When you win Western Maine Conferences you get a jacket and then whenever you win after that you get patches to add to it. We want to decorate our jackets and get more wins,” said Seana Grealy.

Win or lose, the Warriors plan on showing their pride each day as the season moves forward.

“We have a lot of pride in our team and our community and that drives us.” said Littlefield. “We didn’t want to be that ‘blah’ team moving forward. We want to be fun and fun to watch.”

NOTES: Wells will be competing in a charity event at Biddeford High School on January 30th, all proceeds will go towards families in York County.

— Sports Staff Writer Alex Sponseller can be reached at sports@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323.

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