Elmwood Park and Ridgewood high schools renewed their rivalry last week at the Metro Suburban Competitive Cheerleading Conference event, which included 14 schools.
“Ridgewood, to no surprise is our rival,” said Dena Stranski, a junior and cheerleader at Elmwood Park High School. Stranksi explained that the rivalry between the two schools stems from proximity because the neighborhoods are close and that, “it’s not just cheer, Ridgewood’s our rival in basketball, football … soccer and even tennis, all sports. Everything.”
On Jan. 16, both Elmwood Park and Ridgewood performed and placed among the best of top five cheerleading teams in their division.
Stranksi said she has been cheering since the third grade and this is her third year going to conference with Elmwood Park. Stranski said that Elmwood Park had just finished coming from a different invitational a week ago, “We came back last Sunday so that this entire week we were very focused. We knew what we had to do.”
“We ended up getting fourth — we had a beautiful routine, nothing fell,” Stranski said. “As I said, the competition is very hard and we knew that going in. We knew that it was not going to be easy, and we’re happy that we placed.”
Allison Witkowski, a Ridgewood High School senior, said “I felt like we did amazing.”
“I think this is a whole new team than I started with my freshman year,” Witkowski said. “It’s a new coach. New girls. New expectations. I think it really shows when we compete.”
Barbara Carabio is in her first year as the Ridgewood cheerleading coach.
“I think our coach is really organized, and she puts her athletes’ safety first. Which is a big thing,” Witkowski said. “She never wants us to do a routine that she thinks we’re going to mess up at or if anyone is going to get injured. … If we know we’re going to be good at it, then we’re going to perform good.”
Witkowski said she watched Elmwood Park’s performance and said, “I think they did amazing. As with any rivalry, we’d hope we’d do better. But they did place higher than us. And I’m happy for them, they did really good. They deserve it.”
Carabio has been coaching for 15 years and said that although this is her first year with this team, she feels Ridgewood’s other best asset is teamwork, which shows most in the squad’s routine, in the pyramid.
“Their work ethic is amazing; they work really hard,” Carabio said. “They always work as a team, they push each other to work hard. Their pyramid would be one of the things that are most positive as a team because that is something that they build together and achieve together.”
“I’m happy to be at Ridgewood,” Carabio said. “Our administration has been so supportive of the cheerleaders at Ridgewood, and especially supportive of cheerleading as a sport.”
“Cheerleading is very difficult to understand sometimes because like basketball you make the shot right? … It’s not how you make the shot. It’s doesn’t matter if it was stylish or it was pretty, you get the points,” said Heather Grendzinski, Elmwood Park’s cheerleading coach. “As for cheerleading, if you’re talking in basketball terms: you make the shot, but that judge didn’t think it was a pretty shot, so they’ll take the points away.”
“I think it’s a little bit different for cheerleading because we’re not on the court,” she continued. “We’re not on a football field going head to head with each other.”
As far as a rivalry, Carabio said she understood as she is from Lane Tech, whose rival was Whitney Young, but between Elmwood Park High School and Ridgewood the dynamic is different.
“I would say it’s a friendly rivalry,” she said. Carabio and Grendzinski have cheered on the same squad in the past.
“We’re good friends,” Carabio said.
“I wish the best for Ridgewood, we’re both going there for the same thing,” Grendzinski said. “We’re both going there to qualify and to get a spot to go to IHSA, so I wish them the best.”
Taryn Galbreath is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
