The Yonkers High School Varsity Cheerleaders returned to New York State Section 1 Competitive Cheer after a long four year absence when seniors Kaylyn Sierra and Devonnie Webster got together to create a cheer squad to perform for their schools pep rally. In doing so, they were required to have a coach supervise any practices, so they reached out to past coach Kevin Macdonald to help them out. Coach Macdonald oversaw practices and the students were able to put on an exciting pep rally routine. After pep rally the girls asked if they could possibly try and put the cheer team back together.
Coach Kevin Macdonald along with past cheer alumni daughter Jessica Macdonald agreed to coach them and with the blessing and support of Principal Jade Sharp the team quickly got to work. Starting late in the season with limited practice areas and missing most of their practice mats the team began creating their routine. All involved had to sacrifice tremendously while having to practice very long hours to make up for lost time.
With only two weeks of practices on only three out of the seven mats required the team entered their first competition which resulted in a bit of a rough outing. But With Coach Jessica, Captains Devonnie Webster and Kaylyn Sierra driving the team even harder and some newly found old mats the Cheer team rebounded the next week with a second place finish. With three competitions under their belts the team got an invite to the Sectionals.
Family support at all the events was outstanding. The team was recently rewarded for all their hard work when senior Captain Kaylyn Sierra was recognized for her incredible efforts by the Westchester-Putnam-Dutchess-Rockland Cheerleading Coaches Association where she received the Tier One scholarship award.
