PEABODY — 2023 Bishop Fenwick graduate Avrie Fiandaca has been cheering since she was in the third grade. Now, she is heading to Florida Atlantic University (FAU), a top collegiate cheerleading program in the United States, where she hopes to win a national championship.
In April, Florida Atlantic won the 2023 National Cheerleading Association’s (NCA) Intermediate Small Co-ed Division 1-A national championship.
According to FAU’s website, the NCA national competition is the “premier” event for American colleges and universities.
“It’s always been my dream to cheer in college and I always wanted to go south, so I did my own research. I discovered FAU and decided that was the place for me,” Fiandaca said. “I am still in shock I made the team, but I can’t wait to get started.”
Fiandaca’s cheer career started when she signed up with her best friend Emma Festa (who cheers at Merrimack College) for the Peabody Youth Football cheerleading program at the age of nine. A back-spot and tumbler, it didn’t take long for her to fall in love with the sport. She cheered at Cheerletics in Georgetown from fourth to sixth grade. The following year, she moved on to the East Celebrity Elite club in Tewksbury, where she cheered year-round.
After graduating from the Higgins Middle School, Fiandaca moved on to Bishop Fenwick High School.
“My mother and brothers went there, so I guess you could say it runs in the family,” Fiandaca said.
She spent four years on the Crusaders’ cheer team – not all of it was good. Her freshman year, the fall football season was canceled due to the coronavirus. During the spring season, there were only four games. And her sophomore year, she had to leave East Celebrity Elite after suffering a muscular back injury.
During her senior year, Fiandaca took matters into her own hands and began reaching out to college coaches.
“I wasn’t really recruited, but reached out to the team and got an invitation to do a five-minute video tryout,” she said.
Fiandaca flew to Florida on Friday, May 17 for the in-person tryout. She was stunned to learn that 200 hopefuls send in videos with 60 of them attending the tryout. She never dreamed she would make the cut, but on Sunday when she returned home after a whirlwind weekend, she found out she was one of only eight new athletes selected to the 36-person team.
“I was honestly so shocked as I really didn’t think I had made it when I was there. I actually made peace with it,” she said. “I remember walking through my door at home and saying, ‘There was no way I made it,’ so I was totally in shock when I learned I had. Honestly, I am still in shock.”
In July, Fiandaca returned to the Boca Raton campus for two-a-day practice sessions. The team traveled to Daytona to a preseason NCA camp to compete with several other teams.
“It went pretty well, but it was really busy,” Fiandaca said. “It was so much fun. Already I know it will be such a refreshing atmosphere, such a relief. I can’t wait to get started there.”
Fiandaca will move to FAU on Aug. 14, just in time for the preseason. She will be cheering at FAU football games as well as at cheer competitions. At the same time, she is excited to start working on, what she calls, “a real career” studying criminal justice. She said her favorite subjects in high school were forensics and chemistry and plans to become a forensic investigator.
When asked about FAU’s chances to defend its national title, Fiandaca was full of optimism.
“This is really a dream come true for me and to think that I will be competing on a team that won a national championship is incredible,” Fiandaca said. “I’ve been wanting to do this for practically my entire life and to be able to compete on such a good team is incredible.”
