A year ago at this time, the Hopkinton High School winter cheerleading team only had six girls express interest in participating. This year, the Hillers already have 19 athletes hoping to join the squad. The sharp uptick in participation is a continuation from the fall campaign, said coach Allyson Link.

“The goal of increasing interest has been achieved,” Link said. “To go from six last year to 19 this year is a crazy jump.”

During the fall season, Hopkinton fielded two teams. All 22 athletes on the team took part in the sideline team, cheering during football games. A total of 12 girls formed the competition team, tasked with trying to get the Hillers deep into the fall season through the Tri-Valley League, regional and state meets. Even with a bigger roster, the first competition of the year was a challenge, Link said.

“We had a lot of injuries,” she said. “But we hit a clean routine against some good teams.”

Since that competition in October, the Hillers were able to get healthier and also add more difficulty to their routine. All season along, they have relied heavily on their three captains: seniors Jordyn Richard and Katie DellaCioppa and junior Katherine Martinez. The veteran leadership has been especially important with a team featuring several new athletes.

“We don’t have any freshmen on the competition team, but we do have two girls who had not cheered before they made the team,” Link said. “We have quite a few new people, which is great. They are doing really well. It’s crazy to have eight or nine juniors choose to come out for the cheerleading team for the first time. The team almost doubled in size, and it’s really cool.”

Hopkinton does have two freshmen on the sideline team, and four sophomores competing.

The Hillers started the fall looking to build on the success they had last year during the competition season, when the Hillers earned a wild card spot to make it to the state meet for the first time in nine years. But having two teams, which was not the case for Hopkinton last year, also has taken some of the pressure off of the athletes who are not competing and allowed them to have more fun, Link said, and improved the overall team morale.

“I have really tried to make them more visible on social media,” she said. “We have been going to more community events and performing. I am trying to get them involved in things to make it more fun and, with two teams, there is an opportunity to do fun things.”