Olivia DeFluri
Nutley High senior
At what age did you know
you wanted to be a cheerleader?
I knew I wanted to be a cheerleader when I was in third grade. I played many other sports for the recreational program in town but I enjoyed cheerleading the most.
When I was in sixth grade I knew cheerleading was my passion and that I wanted to try out for the high school team. I went to the local gymnastics gym and got to work personally with some high school and college cheerleaders who inspired me to cheer at a competitive level.
Give us a quick outline of a typical week for the squad in the season.
Being a varsity cheerleader, you do not have much down time during the week. We have practices Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays where we focus on stunting and tumbling to incorporate into our sideline cheers and our halftime routine. Then Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are for games and competitions. We are also expected to attended tumbling and stunting classes on our own outside of practice.
What skills and talents are needed to make a good cheerleader?
To be a cheerleader there are many different skills you need to acquire to be on the team. It is important to be able to tumble, almost everyone on the team does and it is a big part of our routine.
Another crucial part of cheerleading is stunting, you have to be very strong to lift the girls in the air and you have to be very flexible to be the girl in the air. It is also required to be good at sideline cheers and dancing. Our job at football games is to get the crowd excited and at competitions we are scored on our energy through the routine.
For the town’s Rec program, you coach young girls hoping to become cheerleaders. How does that feel, helping the next generation?
I have been coaching the recreational cheer program for the past four years. My goal is to be a role model for the young cheerleaders like I had when I was their age.
I always try and encourage the girls I coach to continue cheering in high school. It is very rewarding when any of them tell me they are planning on trying out.
What’s your focus as a cheerleader? Is it to rev up the crowd, support
the team, or a little bit of both?
My goal as a cheerleader is to get the crowd excited and cheering on the team. We always try to put on a great show for the crowd. We make up different cheers, dances and stunts to show off. We also enjoy supporting the football team. We all make posters for the players and decorate the locker room.
Is there a set procedure for selecting the music and creating the choreography for your routines?
Picking the music for our routine is done by the seniors and the coaches and our routine is made up by a choreographer. At the beginning of the season all the
seniors and coaches make a list of the songs they want in the routine. Then we give it to a DJ to mix together and add sound effects.
In the summer we have a choreographer come and help us to make up the routine. We are constantly altering the routine through the season, making it stronger. We almost never do the exact same routine two weeks in a row.
How do you get motivated to go out and make everyone enthusiastic?
I get motivated because I am doing something I love. It is easy to be excited and get the crowd involved when you enjoy what you do.
Everyone on the team is encouraging and push each other to do better. We are always excited to show off the tumbling and stunting skills we have been working on at practice.
What are your graduation plans?
I am planning on going to a four-year university and hopefully continuing my cheerleading career into college.
“Olivia DeFluri is one of our 18 seniors this year, an excellent team player and leader. She consistently goes above and beyond what is asked of her. Our girls volunteer with the Nutley Recreation cheer program as coaches and Liv is still involved with her eighth graders, encouraging them to be ready for high school tryouts. She has the character and dedication that all coaches look for and it has been wonderful coaching and getting to know her these past four years. She also participates in track in our offseason.”
—Coach Breanna DeMatteo
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