Young squad among 43 teams vying at Walt Disney World

By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HE MCDONALD MIDGET FOOTBALLAssociation cheerleaders from grades five, six and seven haven't quit practicing since July 2006.
On Monday, they brought home two first-place InterNational Championships trophies from the 20th annual AmeriCheer competition held in Disney World's Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fla.
About 60 parents and family members were at the post office Monday evening to greet the team as its bus returned from the Akron-Canton Airport. A police and fire department escort met them at the village limits. Some McDonald High School junior varsity and varsity cheerleaders turned out to cheer the youthful winners.
Superintendent Michael Wasser also waited for the girls to return, commenting: "I think this is incredible, absolutely incredible."
Team members are: Miranda Morgan, Anna Sedoruk, Briana Newcomb, Megan White, Breanna Nagi, Jenna Golden, Alex Sudol, Kaitlin Mathews, Caitlin Murphy, Cassy Drumm, Marissa Breckner, Nicole Thomas, Emily McBride and Brittini Holbert.
Head coach Erika White of Illinois Avenue said the girls are ages 10 to 13, and her assistants are Jim Caputo and Michelle Blakeman.
Ecstatic
Breanna, who will be 12 on Wednesday, said she's "really, really happy" about the team's win. She's been with the Midgets group since she was 3 years old. She said her parents, Ali and Bonnie Nagi of Indiana Avenue, told her she could "try with all my might," adding, "I did."
Nicole, 12, said, "I was just happy, you know?"
She's been with the Midgets for four years. "It was really fun, but it was way competitive."
AmeriCheer administers more than 100 competitions and 200 educational summer camps each year throughout the United States. The AmeriCheer InterNational Championships competition is held every March at Disney in Orlando, and organizers said it attracts 4,000 competitors and 8,000 spectators annually.
Global competitors
On Saturday and Sunday, competitors from 43 teams participated. This included competitors at the high school and college age brackets. There were foreign teams from England, Ecuador, Colombia and Hawaii.
White said the McDonald team operated as a single unit at the competition and won the International Division, showing as the best over other teams on overall skill level.
The team also won Grand Champion for its overall best routine rating against all teams, even though it is a nonmounting team and competed against teams that did mounts, the coach said.
The team placed eighth in the Top 10 competition against all age brackets, including high school and college-age teams.
Team members held a single fundraiser for the trip with a silent auction fundraiser Feb. 24 and donated half of those proceeds to the fight against breast cancer. Other costs were covered personally.
The trip to Orlando came about after the team was the biggest donor in the Pink Ribbon Classic at Youngstown State University held Oct. 28, 2006. The group raised 4,000 for breast cancer and because of that won a bid to the international competition at Orlando, White said.
Since its beginning in 1987, AmeriCheer Inc., a national cheerleading and dance company, has grown to offer year-round instruction to pupils 3 to 23. Elizabeth Rossetti, a former Ohio State University cheerleader, founded AmeriCheer as a one-person instructional clinic out of her Columbus apartment.