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West Valley cheer teams qualify for Pacific Northwest Regionals

By Jennifer M. van der Kleut

It's well into the football season, but the ball players aren't the only ones racking up wins and losses--so are the cheerleaders who root them on.

For the cheerleaders of West Valley Pop Warner, it's been more wins than losses.

West Valley Pop Warner is an independent organization of football and cheer teams that includes children from throughout the area. The children are broken up into teams by age and skill.

Three of West Valley's cheer teams have been ranking high in this season's early competitions. On Oct. 14, the junior peewees (third to sixth grades), peewees (fourth to sixth grades) and midgets (sixth to 10th grades) competed against more than 250 squads in the Peninsula Pop Warner Cheerleading competition at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View. The junior peewees and peewees each brought home first places, and the midgets finished second.

Next, the teams went on to compete in the first big event of the season, the Peninsula Championships at Santa Clara University on Oct. 29. Once again, the girls triumphed--the junior peewees and peewees each finished first in their divisions. With the wins, each team advances to the Pacific Northwest Regional Cheer and Dance Championships on Nov. 24 at Santa Clara University.

"I have an absolutely fantastic team this year. They're really great girls," says Tiffany Borgia, head coach of the peewees. "They really care about each other and work well together, and they're funny and fun to be with. I call them my 'dream team.' "

Borgia says the girls are hard at work perfecting their routines for the Nov. 24 competition. If they place in first or second that day, the girls will win a trip to the Cheerleading National Championships at Walt Disney World in Orlando in December.

"They really want to win. They're very competitive. Plus, they'd get to miss a week of school," Borgia says with a laugh.

West Valley Pop Warner Cheer includes girls from Campbell, Saratoga, Los Gatos and West San Jose. The junior peewees, coached by Laura Tinoco, include Claire Brannon, Jacqueline Casey, Alyssa Czaikoski, Angelica Mikl, Haley Rositano, Kylie Stokes, Ashley Tanaka, Kayla Tanaka and Bailey Vargas. The peewees, coached by Borgia, include Katie Boland, Madison Borgia, Maddy Choate, Tiffany Laton, Reenie McKiernan, Madison Morocco, Bianca Oliveri, Rebecca Robinson, Tiffany Rudashevsky, Melissa Szenda, Haley Wong and Samantha Zuniga.

Visit www.wvpw.com.