Port Chester cheerleading program taking off with 2 blue and white Mod squads for first time

January 24, 2024 at 11:34 p.m.

The Port Chester Middle School Blue cheerleading team took first place at their very first competition at New Rochelle High School earlier this year. (Courtesy photo of Leah Yusi)

During a local winter scholastic sports season that hasn't given Port Chester much to cheer about, the cheerleaders have stepped into the void and are stirring up local and national interest.

For the first time ever, for example, Port Chester Middle School has two teams—a blue and a white team, the blue squad being the group that vies in local competitions while the white squad is known as the spirit team that supports and cheers at Port Chester sporting events such as the basketball games and wrestling matches.

Record cheer turnout

Both teams were started to accommodate the more than 50 girls—a school record—that tried out for the cheerleading squad.

"The two teams were created so that all middle school students could be involved in the cheerleading program," according to Leah Yusi, a former Port Chester High School cheerleader who graduated from the high school in 2019 and from Manhattanville College four years later.

"The goal is to start the athletes young at the modified level to build the whole cheerleading program," Yusi explained, adding that she co-coaches the Blues with Brianna Greto, a former Westlake cheerleader who also cheered throughout her career at Pace University.

The White team is coached by Candace Calabrese, a special education teacher with the Port Chester School District for 25 years who has over 35 years of cheerleading coaching experience.

    The Port Chester Middle School White cheerleading team supports and cheers at Port Chester Middle School sporting events but does not compete.
 Courtesy of Leah Yusi   

Already a winner

The Blues have already won a Modified Game Day Division while competing for the first time, winning a first place event at New Rochelle High School and taking second place in another competition at Mount Vernon. They will next be competing in another event Saturday (1/27) at Harrison with the season finale scheduled for next Saturday (2/3) at Port Chester High School.

Early Blue team high achievers include Devora Garcia, Alexis Patafio, Emma Santos, Marley Saunders and Zoe Sosa. "We hope these girls continue to cheer at the high school level," Yusi said, explaining that a typical game day cheerleading practice routine includes a band dance, a situational sideline cheer, a crowd-leading cheer and a rendition of the high school fight song.

"That gives teams a forum to compete in categories that reflect what they do on the sidelines to engage crowd involvement and demonstrate school traditions,” she said, adding that the competitive team plans to have both a Game Day and Traditional routine ready by next year to compete in local competitions.

The Nationals Send Off

 John Gonzalez, head varsity cheerleading coach as well as head of the cheerleading program, said the Middle School cheerleaders will join the junior varsity and varsity cheerleading squads in a Feb. 5 performance (a Monday) at 7 p.m. at the high school that will be a "Nationals Send Off" for Port Chester's nationally 10th-ranked cheerleading team before they take off for the National High School Cheerleading Championships at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

So there's lots to cheer about when it comes to local cheerleading. And the program is taking off like never before. Even in a winter of Port Chester scholastic sports discontent.