The ‘Bout Damn Time Tour arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 13th 2010, at The Middle East restaurant in order to play for a rather large crowd of indie-rock and pop-punk fans. The tour, which travels all across the country, features The Bigger Lights, Anarbor, The Audition and This Providence, whose hometown the tour ends in; Seattle, Washington.

The Bigger Lights began the night with their twist on the customary pop-punk sound. Frontman Topher Talley’s unique sounding vocals set the band apart from other members of the genre; a trait which can either make or break a band that belongs to the pop-punk label. They captivated the crowd with a great deal of charisma from their members (led by Talley) on stage, along with a high quality musical performance. Their set featured songs from both their EP, and their debut self-titled album.

The memory of The Bigger Lights’ set would outlast that of their fellow tourmates, Anarbor, who made a sub-par appearance on stage. Anarbor’s sound is far less exciting than most pop-punk bands and not overly dynamic, as far as the genre goes. Their stage presence lacked severely, with the members simply standing in place for much of the set. Their set, which included songs from their EP and their most recent full length, excited members of the audience who were already fans of the band, but failed to impress many who were attending in order to see other bands on the tour.

Following Anarbor on stage was the veteran pop-punk act, The Audition. With four albums under their belt, they were the most experienced of the bands on the ‘Bout Damn Time Tour. Of the four bands on the tour, their sound fell the closest to the typical pop-punk sound. However, despite their minor lack of originality as far as their sound goes, the band made up for it with an above average amount of excitement and presence on stage. They pranced around The Middle East’s stage, playing their hearts out and just having a great time. Their set was one that most definitely deserved to be the last act before giving the stage to This Providence.

This Providence is an indie-rock band with two full albums and an EP to their name. Their music strays from the conventional sound of pop-punk while fusing elements of the genre with elements that are better described as “indie”. Either way, the band manages to draw in fans of pop-punk and indie music alike.

Entering the stage with “The Boys Are Back In Town” by Thin Lizzy playing through the PA system, the crowd went absolutely wild with excitement, welcoming This Providence to The Middle East’s stage. The lightshow for the band exceeded those of the previous bands, with extra lights illuminating them and accenting their performance nicely. This Providence played songs that appear on their debut, self-titled album such as “A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing”, in addition to newer songs such as “My Beautiful Rescue”, which appears on their most recent full-length, “Who Are You Now”.

This Providence proved themselves to be a very worthy headliner for the tour, and put on a memorable show. They captured the audience’s attention with their stage presence, in addition to their music’s presence and its captivating rhythm.

Hosting the tour for the night was The Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub. The Middle East is definitely one of the top venues in the Boston area to catch a band on tour at. The club features many local and national acts, generally falling under genres such as alternative rock, pop, electronic, punk-pop, and other similar styles of music. In addition to hosting a large number of shows, the venue is cleanly and well organized. It is also located in a nice section of Cambridge, along Massachusetts Avenue, just a short walk from the Central Square subway station. For those that may come across the opportunity to see a show at The Middle East, it is a highly recommended experience.

Note from the authors: Thank you to Kelly McWilliam from Atlantic Records for setting us up with photo passes.

Check out our flickr page in order to see pictures from this show, in addition to ones from the Alternative Press Tour. Also, we will be shooting for I See Stars, VersaEmerge, Let’s Get It and others later this week.

On Thursday April 1st, 2010, the Artery Foundation Across The Nation Tour made its way to the Crocodile Rock Café in Allentown, PA. Headlining the tour was post-hardcore band, Attack Attack!, supported by Breathe Carolina, I See Stars, Asking Alexandria, and Bury Tomorrow.

Prior to the show, band members could be seen wandering around the club, loitering at their merchandise tables, and even playing a few friendly games of pool outside of the main concert hall. However, the venue itself was poorly organized and very hectic. The manager appeared incredibly stressed out, and as a result, came off as very rude to the members of the press. The photography pit was very cramped, but would have to suffice for the night.

The opening band, Bury Tomorrow, is a hardcore band that was assembled in the United Kingdom. Playing in support of their recently released album, “Portraits”, they did their best to put on an exciting show for the crowd. They played a set of about five songs, and were a delight to watch. They put all the energy that they had into captivating the crowd and did exactly that. The band was very friendly and motivated to promote new fans as they spent the remainder of the night mingling with fans at their merchandise booth.

Bury Tomorrow will return to Europe for the majority of April and May, where they will be touring with American bands Alesana, A Skylit Drive, and Emarosa. This tour will be another major one for their reputation.

Bury Tomorrow

Another British band, Asking Alexandria was the next to take the stage. The band just released their debut album, “Stand Up And Scream” during September of 2009. Already, they have gained a spectacular number of fans and played a large number of shows. As they began their set, the crowd was ecstatic. With a set filled with their most popular songs, the fans sang along and were absorbed into the music.

The band sounded nearly as intense as they do on their CD but with the added effect of being live. They were also very strong instrumentally. However, the vocals lacked a small bit. The clean vocals were choppy at times, and where there would normally be high screams, there were low ones. Since Asking Alexandria is a very young band, they have plenty of time to realize their flaws from when they play live and correct them.

Asking Alexandria will be touring in Europe before returning to the United States in order to headline the Welcome To The Circus Tour, which also features Detroit based post-hardcore act We Came As Romans.

Asking Alexandria

The third band to take the stage was Breathe Carolina. The colorful and flashy light display that they opened up their set with and maintained throughout the whole show was fantastic, complimented the music, and added another dimension to the quality of their performance.

Breathe Carolina’s set consisted of a select few songs from their debut album “It’s Classy, Not Classic”, along with an assortment of songs from their newer album “Hello Fascination”. These included “Take Me To Infinity”, “Welcome To Savannah”, and a crowd favorite, “Hello Fascination”; the title track of the album. For much of the set, the crowd danced and sang along, simply enjoying their music, which features electronic-pop sounds, in addition to more hardcore sounds.

Formed in Colorado, Breathe Carolina has released an EP, along with their two full length albums thus far. As their popularity level continues to rise, they will be playing on the Vans Warped Tour for the full tour again, as they did last year. This year, they’re one of the biggest names appearing on the list of bands that will participate on the summer-long tour.

Breathe Carolina

The following, I See Stars, took the slot that Breathe Carolina would normally be playing in, due to the fact that one of their members was late to arrive at the venue. They are another young post-hardcore band with a very unique sound. They use a great deal of synthesizer in their music, in addition to combining catchy clean vocals with strong screamed vocals.

The band’s set was very strong both in stage presence and in musical presence. Supporting their 2009 album, “3D”, they played songs including their hit song “What This Means To Me”. Sounding very similar to their CD, the band managed to replicate the musical quality and adrenaline of the songs on their record, on the stage. Including a brief appearance of guest vocals from David Schmitt of Breathe Carolina, the band jumped around on stage and put on an above average show all around.

I See Stars will be headlining an East coast tour with VersaEmerge during the end of April and beginning of May. Similar to Breathe Carolina, they will also be playing at the Vans Warped Tour.

I See Stars

The headlining band, Attack Attack! is an electronic post hardcore band with a very large fan base. Despite a recent change of frontmen, their fans have still stuck with them. The new screamer, Caleb, moved from playing keyboard to screaming after their old screamer, Nick, left the band just prior to them going on tour. The band’s sound has changed a good deal since their debut album, “Someday Came Suddenly”, but they have remained just as heavy as before.

Their set consisted of a brand new song called “AC-130”, along with songs from their debut, such as “Stick Stickly”. The crowd went crazy during their set and had what appeared to be a great time. At one point, the band told the crowd to lift someone up to sit on their shoulders, and a good portion of them complied, making the pit two stories as they finished up their set.

The band has no upcoming tour planned until they play the entire Vans Warped Tour this summer, similar to fellow tour members Breathe Carolina.

Attack Attack!

The Artery Foundation Across The Nation Tour featured a very powerful and talented lineup of young bands. With only one band that has more than one full length album released, there is much to look forward to from all of the acts involved. Despite its coming to an end, the tour is definitely a memorable one.

As far as the venue goes, it may not be quite so memorable. The Crocodile Rock Café is a very cramped venue to catch a large tour at. With so many people packed into an average sized building, there was much confusion concerning fans trying to exit the building between sets, in addition to it being very hot inside. Poor organization and overselling the show were the two biggest problems that led to a mediocre night at best at The Crocodile Rock Café.

Note from the authors: We would like to send a special thank you along to Nonafaye Williams at Fearless Records. She was the one who set us up with press passes for this show, along with others and gave us this great opportunity. We appreciate it very much!

Also, we’ll be reviewing and shooting at the Alternative Press Tour at The House of Blues, which features Never Shout Never, Hey Monday, The Cab, Every Avenue and The Summer Set. In addition to that, we’ll also be shooting for and reviewing The Maine’s headlining tour with Cartel and Artist vs. Poet at the Pearl Street Ballroom within the coming weeks. More shows to follow!

If you would like to follow all of our photography, please visit our photostream on flickr, here: http://waghostwriter.com/TSj

Staff Writers

On Saturday, February 13^th, 2010, The Valentine’s Day Massacre took place at The Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts. The show featured many New England-based alternative and post-hardcore acts, including Boston based act, Vanna, who was headlining the show.

From the photo pit, right in front of the stage, The Palladium appeared larger than life, with stadium seating high above the main floor and fans lined up from the front barrier to the bars and merchandise tables in the back. The pit filled within minutes of the doors opening and people packed themselves up to the barrier in order to get as close to the stage as possible. On the other side of the barrier, the other photographers and the security personnel prepared themselves for a long night of music and position shuffling. Shortly, the lights dimmed and gave way to the first act of the night.

With Words

With Words is a five piece metalcore band that was formed in Massachusetts. The band has released a demo, but is still yet to be signed. Their sound draws some comparison to the older songs that A Day To Remember produced, with heavy riffs and very similar screams.  They played songs that appear on their demo, including “Never Yours”.

The band was full of energy and showed an abundance of stage presence while on The Palladium’s stage; one which is huge for the band’s resume. Their liveliness and exciting music made them enjoyable to the crowd and the press alike. With Words plans on releasing their first full-length album at some point during the year 2011, however, no specific date is available as of yet. They are a young, up and coming band with a great deal of potential for success on the hardcore scene.

A Faylene Sky

Five piece post-hardcore band, A Faylene Sky was the next of the bands to take the stage. Formed in Providence, Rhode Island, the band brought a solid set and good deal of energy to the stage.  Their set list consisted of songs such as “Last Call For Lost Souls”, which are featured on their debut EP, “Define Alive”. The EP was released during July of 2009, and since then, the band had been playing shows and gaining popularity throughout the northeast.

Their songs consist of a mix between clean and screaming vocals, and very much resemble the majority of post-hardcore songs.  They combine their strong vocal mix with inventive guitar riffs, double bass drumming, and harsh breakdowns. Similar to With Words, A Faylene Sky possesses plenty of potential to find success on the hardcore scene. They have already shared stages with plenty of accomplished bands and will certainly continue to land shows with major bands.

View From An Airplane

Alternative rock band View From An Airplane was the next to take the stage at The Palladium. The four piece band came together during the summer of 2009 and recorded their EP, “All The Right Words” shortly after. The EP was well recorded, and even included a guest-vocal appearance by John O’Callaghan of The Maine.

View From An Airplane’s sound is a lot softer than the other bands that appeared at The Valentine’s Day Massacre. Their songs feature entirely clean vocals and slower tempos, giving them their pop/alternative-rock classification.  Despite the genre difference between the other performers, View From An Airplane received a very warm welcome to the stage. They played through their entire EP while they pranced around on the stage, with the crowd enjoying every minute of it.

View From An Airplane

Armor For The Broken

The next band to take the stage would be arguably the heaviest band of the night, Armor For The Broken. They are a New England-based, five piece metalcore band that has released a three-song demo, and also a full-length album which has yet to be released. Their music is very heavy, and resembles a good deal of fellow metalcore bands, but theirs possesses entirely screamed vocals.

On the Palladium’s stage, they played songs from their demo, in addition to an assortment of songs that will presumably appear on their full length. Their whole set was very lively and well-enjoyed by the crowd even despite the lack of coherence regarding their vocals. Since the show, Armor For The Broken has been playing shows along with Vanna. Once these shows have been played, they will continue to play assorted local shows in order to gain more popularity.

A Loss For Words

A Loss For Words is a pop-punk band that was formed in the Boston area. Although, like View From An Airplane, they were one of the lighter bands to take the stage at the Palladium, they still received a very warm welcome. They possess a sound that is very similar to older pop-punk, such as Hit The Lights. This sound includes clean vocals, upbeat riffs, and a generally pop-like feel to the music.

Of all the bands, A Loss For Words was arguably the one with the largest amount of stage presence. They played songs that appear on their debut album while simply appearing to be having a great time on stage, in addition to playing an impressive show.

The band is very popular in the Boston area, but is currently trying to spread their name elsewhere by supporting their album, “The Kids Can’t Lose”, which was released during 2009.  They are currently touring in Europe and will be coming back to the US to continue playing shows here.

Our Last Night

Five piece, New Hampshire-based post-hardcore band, Our Last Night was the second to last band to grace the stage before Vanna.  They are currently playing in support of their sophomore album, “The Ghosts Among Us”, but will release their third full length album, “We Will All Evolve”, on May 4th. To the delight of the crowd, they played a small number of their upcoming songs. However, they mainly played older songs, from their first two albums. These included one of their most popular, “Escape”, to which much of the crowd sang along to.

Our Last Night will be back at the Palladium to play Skatefest 2010, in addition to playing multiple CD release shows and partaking in Asking Alexandria’s upcoming headlining tour. Their new album is set to be a hit amongst the post-hardcore community, as the band has undoubtedly matured since their sophomore effort.

Our Last Night

Vanna

By the time Vanna hit the stage, the crowd was still filled with an enormous amount of energy. Their set started with them projecting the debut of their newest music video for the song “Trashmouth” on a large screen on the stage. The crowd buzzed with anticipation for the premier and for the band to begin playing. While on the stage, they emphasized how grateful they were to be headlining a show at The Palladium. Their show was in support of their most recent album, “A New Hope”, which was released in 2009. They have a brand new album in the works, which they mentioned several times while occupying the stage. Musically, their set was fantastic. They played the majority of their album’s most popular songs and delighted the crowd with their abundance of energy.

They left the stage after exerting all of their energy on satisfying their fans, and did exactly that. Since The Valentine’s Day Massacre, Vanna has toured with fellow post-hardcore band, Gwen Stacey. They will also be playing Skatefest 2010 at The Palladium, and then touring in Europe, before playing a portion of the Vans Warped Tour. Their next album should be a big hit amongst the band’s large New England following, along with their growing number of fans elsewhere.

Vanna

Throughout the entire show, the crowd maintained an unprecedented energy level. Crowd surfers were constantly making their way up front, fans were screaming and singing along and everyone was watching a very formidable display of music. Every band that appeared on the stage jumped around and just had fun playing their music. After spending the entire night in the photo pit, it was very hard to hear after the show was over. That comes with standing directly in front of the speakers. Either way, the show was an incredible experience in every way. Many of the bands from the Valentine’s Day Massacre will be re-appearing at Skatefest 2010, which will be held at the Palladium on May 8^th. For anyone who is a fan of the bands playing, it is highly recommended that they make an attempt to attend the show. You definitely will not be disappointed.

Staff Writers

On Saturday, January 30^th,  The Venetia Fair’s headlining tour made its second stop at Rocko’s in Manchester, New Hampshire. Rocko’s happened to be the second of the two stops for the tour’s kickoff events. Before coming to a close, the tour is scheduled to

Tommy Pontes of The Beauty In Isolation

Westford’s own band, The Beauty In Isolation is a post-hardcore band based in Westford, Massachusetts. They were by far the youngest of the bands to hit the stage at Rocko’s, and maintained a formidable sound compared to the other, more experienced bands. The band played a solid three-song set, which featured their songs “Sympathy for Another’s Suffering”, “Astacia” and “If You Thought You Did This Wrong, You Couldn’t Have Been More Right”.

This was their second show since adding sophomores Pablo Martinez on drums and Sal Restuccia on bass while moving junior John Oliver to rhythm guitar. In the midst of the lineup shuffle, juniors Pat Hunt and Tommy Pontes kept their old positions as screamer and lead guitarist/clean vocalist, respectively. They played a successful set, musically, with a decent amount of stage presence. However, since the show, Pat and the band have parted ways, leaving the band without a permanent screaming vocalist. They are currently searching for a replacement.

Kiss Kiss is an experimental indie band that comes from New York. To date, the five-piece band has released two full albums and a self-titled EP. They are currently playing in support of their newest album, “The Meek Shall Inherit What’s Left”, which was released during the summer of 2009. Their set consisted of approximately six songs, including their fast paced song “All The Draw” and their song “Machines”. Their set featured dramatic vocals and ripping violin parts that cut through the rest of the music and provided the band their own, unique style.

Pat Hunt of The Beauty In Isolation

Trophy Scars is an older, six-piece alternative/indie rock band based out of New Jersey. As of now, they have released four full albums. The most recently of those is entitled “Bad Luck”, which was released in early 2009. With a sound that is slightly reminiscent of fellow alternative rock band, Brand New (only with slightly more gruff vocals), Trophy Scars plays very well organized music. Their set at Rocko’s was in no way an exception. They put on a convincing musical performance and overall enjoyable set, before giving up the stage to The Venetia Fair.

The headlining band, The Venetia Fair is best described as an experimental/alternative rock band with a style of their own. They are a young band, with none of their members exceeding their early twenties. Their proficient use of screams, keyboard, and inventive riffs in their songs put them in their own unique category of music. The band formed in Boston and at the moment, they are playing songs from their debut album, “The Circus” which was released during the summer of 2009.

Despite the aforementioned, very praiseworthy acts, The Venetia Fair’s set was by far the most powerful act of the night. From the beginning to the conclusion of their set, their energy level was at top notch. They spent every song writhing around on the stage, providing an incredible amount of energy. Above all, they played an incredible set, music wise. It was slightly longer than those of Kiss Kiss and Trophy Scars, and the band was certainly noticed on stage for every second they were there.The set consisted of the band playing through the majority of their album, including their song “The Ringleader”, which they recently released a music video for.

The Venetia Fair is a great band to see live and they definitely implement a worthwhile, well thought out performance. Once their tour with Kiss Kiss comes to an end, the band is immediately picking up where they

Benny Santoro of The Venetia Fair

All in all, the show was very worthwhile to attend and provided a great musical and photographic experience. The bands showcased a level of energy that made photographing, listening, and simply being around them enjoyable. The small venue is ideal for photographing and being able to see great bands play, while being up close to them.  If the chance arises, shows at Rocko’s are highly recommended.

Note from the authors:  We will be photographing and reviewing many concerts within the approaching months. These include shows in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York, with venues such as The Palladium and The Studio at Webster Hall. Some of the many artists at these shows are Breathe Carolina, Confide, I See Stars, Stephen Jerzak, Stereo Skyline and VersaEmerge. We will have new material posted soon. If you would like to see updates of our shows planned, or see additional photos, visit the links below.

http://waghostwriter.com/TSj

http://waghostwriter.com/gF

Joe Occhiuti of The Venetia Fair

January 20, the varsity girls’ ice hockey team drove all the way into Waltham to face the Waltham team after three consecutive wins against Wayland, CC and Newton-South.

“We have a lot of confidence going into this match,” sophomore Steph Arno said. “We know how Waltham plays and we have a good strategy and mindset going into it.”

The game started off strong with WA challenging the Waltham offense. Arno and senior Hannah Grisichuck had four shots on net combined.

Second period rolled in with Waltham showing who was boss. Right away Waltham was on the Ghost’s defense but despite strong defensive efforts from sophomore Katie Lowe and senior Lauren Brett , Waltham’s Michelle Hinley was able to blast the puck past Socolow assisted by fellow teammate Annabelle Rogers.

The third and final period rolled in with WA trying to get the puck past Waltham’s stacked defense, but despite tied efforts from everyone on the rink, Hinley was able to get another assist off of Annie Gagnon with 54 seconds left in the match leaving the Ghost’s with a 2-0 loss overall.

“Yeah, losing was disappointing but we learned how to play against them [for] next time and we know what to work on. It was a good match and we had fun,” said freshman Jen Grisichuck.

Last Friday, December 4, our own swim team traveled to Sudbury to compete in their first “meet” of the season, the DCL Relays. This competition is not only for practice, but also for the many teams to meet their new swimmers, including the freshmen.

The WA Swim Team departed around 2:10, filled with both excitement and anticipation.

The Relays weren’t scored like other average meets, and provided the team and coaches with an introduction to the newest team members.

Although each heat of swimmers did receive a place (1st, 2nd, etc.), the end results were not scored to distinguish an overall winner.

WA Swim Team

Coach Caitlin Klick, who has been the Head Girls’ Swim Coach for the past six years, describes the Relays as “ a fun meet…it’s a great meet to kind of meet your freshmen”.

Boys’ Head Swim Coach, Harriet Kinnett, who was unable to attend the Relays, coaches alongside Klick.

Overall, Klick feels very good about this year’s team, and has confidence that the many freshmen will help to end the season with a record like last year’s team.

The 2008-2009 Girl’s Team finished last year with a 7-3 record; as for the Boys’ Team, they finished strong, with a record of 8-2.

As for improvement in the final records, Klick certainly believes that the Girls’ Team can improve on theirs.

She states, “On the girls’ side, we lost three key seniors, but we got a great group of freshmen girls, so they could even improve on their 7-3 record.”

On the contrary, Klick believes that because they graduated eight senior boys last year, and the Boys’ Team is fairly young, the team itself will have a hard time getting to that 8-2 record.

With their three toughest competitors up first, Wayland, Concord Carlisle, and Lincoln Sudbury, the WA Swim Team will have to continue practicing hard, both throughout the week, and even on Saturdays, for dry land.

Klick describes both teams as very hardworking, and as for how the season will go, she believes time will tell.

From left to right: Matt Miller, Jimmy Cummings, Andrew Levenbaum, Philip Pang

Courtesy Photo

Sunday, November 22 was a day that some cheerleading teams in Massachusetts will remember as an okay day or maybe a bad day or maybe even an embarrassing day. A lot of girls fell, a lot were dropped, and one even was dropped then knocked down her supporting teammate on her way down.

For the Westford Academy Varsity Cheerleading team it was an excellent day. They won the Division One state championship,for the first time, with a score of 185.0 points. In 2007, when the current seniors were freshman, WA won the division two state title.
(video after the jump)

The competition was held at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury. Westford Academy went on during the morning session, along with Division Four teams and the Co-Ed teams. Division two and three competed in the afternoon session.

The girls performed second to last. Although coach Josh Vadala said he doesn’t mind going on at the end.

“I really like going on at the end because you’re really fresh in the judges’ minds and typically, if you go on early, they hold back some of the scores and might not score you as high because they want to know what else is out there.”

During the day he would go back and check who the competition was, although he didn’t see all the division one teams because they were warming up for part of the competition.

Valada and Jaime Holmes have been coaching together for five years now. Although, Holmes has been coaching here for six years total. Together they have won six consecutive DCL titles and the division two state title in 2006 and 2007.

Going into the competition Vadala had a good idea that they were going to win. Their biggest competition was Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. Whitman-Hanson beat them by half a point last year.

The move into division one from division two was also a factor. Vadala said they didn’t know what to expect.

“In the beginning of the season we moved to division one, so we didn’t really know what to expect and it’s a much more competitive division than division two. We had the talent but the question was would we be able to come together as a team and perform at the level they needed too.”

But after winning the DCLs and the regional competition, Vadala and Holmes knew they could win the division one championship.

“The first two competitions were pretty tough and after that the team really buckled down. The week before the regional competition, they had the highest score in the state and we knew we had a chance and it was just a matter of putting it all together,” Vadala said.

The routine starts out with a tumbling section. Vadala describes this as the strongest part, where the girls worked on a lot individually over the summer. The next section is cheering, where Vadala always becomes a little nervous.

“When they get to the part with the cheer, that’s always a little nervous because that’s the part where they could make mistakes. So once they get to the cheer and they’re doing pyramid, that’s always my one nervous part,” Vadala said.

WA uses seven flyers instead of the usual five which is a risk but pays off. But once they get through the cheer, they perform the dance, where Vadala says they always do a good job and is the exciting and enjoyable part of the routine.

To create the song for the routine, they first must come up with a theme. This year WA’s theme was “I want you back/I miss you.” The joke among the team was “we miss being state champions and we want it back.” The songs used were songs that are popular or a little older that were about that theme.

He takes the girls’ input, and they help choose the songs. After the songs are chosen, he takes it to his friend who puts it all together. He is told the music, the theme, and what is in the routine.

There are eight judges and four categories that need to be judged, two per category. The judges need to obtain a judges certificate every year by attending a class in the specific category that they are assigned. The judges are usually ex-coaches or coaches that don’t have a team competing.

Vadala says the season had its struggles, “we definitely had some bumps in the road and some struggles and in the middle of the season. It’s always hard to get people motivated and with a group of twenty three girls its always a struggle, it’s like a family.”

But the girls kicked it up and worked hard and did “an exception job of bring it all together and it was so great because it was unexpected and at the beginning of the season no one was talking about us and it was great,” according to Vadala.

Junior Elissa Chao agrees, “this win was great and I hope we do the same next year!”

For next year, Vadala says that it is possible to win again if they stay focused and be the good leaders he knows they can be. They are losing eight seniors, some of whom are strong bases. They provided a strong leadership and helped the team come together. But returning are an extremely talented freshmen class, all four flyers, and strong tumblers.

For Vadala, “it was my most satisfying win as a coach and was really an enjoyable way to end to the season.”