Gloucester Alumni

By Dom Nicastro , Staff writer
Gloucester Daily Times

Gloucester High School has built a strong reputation for its cheerleading the past two decades. So it should be no surprise the Fishermen's co-ed squad beat six other teams for the top spot in Sunday's Massachusetts Secondary School Administrators Association fall cheerleading championship in Newton. The team also qualified for a national competition.

"I thought they did awesome," said Gloucester coach Eric Bichao. "They had one little bubble in their pyramid, but they recovered quickly."

What makes the cheerleaders' victory even better is the amount of work it takes to actually have a team. Cheerleading is not recognized by the organization that governs high school sports, nor is it traditionally fully funded like other sports at the school. The team relies on fund-raisers, support from parents and donations.

For those who support them, it seems to be well worth it. "I'm speechless. I've never wanted anything this much," said senior captain Kristen Curcuru.

Another fine effort from a Gloucester High School team last weekend came in cross country. The boys team placed fifth at the Division 1 All-State competition, which featured the top 20 cross country teams in the state. Teams earn their spots at the state race based on their performances at regional races the prior week. Gloucester won its spot with a third-place finish at the Division 2 Eastern Mass. race.

The Fishermen topped that Saturday in Northfield, led by Peter Asaro's third-place finish in a time of 16:17. Four other Gloucester runners - Liam Anastasia-Murphy (27th, 16:56), John Ryan (67th, 17:23), Austin Sousa (72nd, 17:25) and John Francis (116th, 17:59) - also ran well for the Fishermen.

This team was not on the level of the Gloucester teams that won six straight state titles from 1994 to 1999. But it is a team that promised to get back to the state competition after it missed out a year ago. It more than fulfilled that promise last weekend.