WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — National championship titles hang on the walls, and trophies sit on the shelves inside the Williamsport Twisters gym in Armstrong Township. The twisters have been around since 1999 and are about to enter their 25th season.
The youth level-two all-star cheerleading team received its first trophy after winning a national championship title at the Hershey Open Nationals last weekend.
"It's two minutes and 30 seconds of dance, jump, gymnastics, stunts, so they're pretty tired by the end, but not if they've worked really hard all season," said Stacy Ferraro, coach and owner of the Williamsport Twisters.
The Williamsport Twisters competed against two teams in the youth level-two division, ages 7 to 12.
Cheer season runs from November through April. The team practices two to three times a week for two and a half to three hours, working on different aspects of their routine.
"We do the opening, and then we go into jumps and gymnastics and the pyramid, and there's also different stunts that we do, and taking the time to review, review, review, and letting them know that this is what you need to work on and then working on that," Ferraro said.
"We all have to work together, and if we all work together and do our jobs, we can make it work," said Ryleigh Nicholas, a member of the Twisters.
Every competition the team competes in is a learning experience.
"That we can always do it better than we did last time because we did mess up a little bit, but then we still won, but we can still correct those mistakes so it's better the next time," Nicholas said.
Ferraro says she hopes that next season, the team goes even farther than they did this year.
"In the past, like I said, we had some great invitations to big competitions in Florida," Ferraro said. "And that's what we hope to gain next year for them."