Lynn Chargers cheerleaders win national title

Not only did the Lynn Chargers cheerleading squad get to go to Disney World, the cheerleaders capped off their weekend by winning a national championship on Sunday.”They were screaming, jumping up and down,” head coach and cheerleading director Stephanie McClelland said. “One girl (Janiadis Burgos) was allowed to get the trophy. It was as tall as she was.”The 12 girls on the squad are all from Lynn. (The Lynn Chargers are a youth football and cheerleading program.) They performed a 2-minute, 30-second routine featuring two musical portions, stunting, tumbling and a cheerleading portion. The musical portions featured three different arrangements from Selena Gomez’ “Who Says,” Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair,” and Usher’s “Mine.”An 8-judge panel gave the team a score of 66 out of a possible 75 points.The squad, guided by McClelland and assistant coach April Peralta, cheered at Chargers youth football games in the fall and won the New England Championships in November to go on to the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) national championships at the Wide World of Sports in Disney World. The Chargers’ qualifying score at New Englands was high enough to send them straight to the national finals.Forty-three adults accompanied the cheerleaders, with most people leaving on Friday and most coming back today, McClelland said.There was just one minor lament.”It’s freezing,” McClelland said from Disney World. “It’s, like, 45 (degrees).”Rich Tenorio can be reached at [email protected].