OUR CHAMPS! 

The National Champion Methuen Pop Warner Varsity team is led by Lauren Leopold, who is assisted by Jacqueline Drapeau, Allyson McCormick, Elizabeth Maroun and Vicki Bergeron. Team members include Sylvi Bergeron, Evelyn Callahan, MacKenzie Cavanaugh, Janelle Charlotin, Nadia Cox, Hailey Cruz, Liana Kehoe, Kayla Marcelin, Valentina Maroun, Kalisse Mauras, Shea McCormick, Jesani Ortiz, Sophia Packer, Caitlyn Reilly, Erianny Santiago, Adriana Simard, Camila Souza and Carmen Williams. 

Explosive energy, mental resilience and a love of competition led Methuen Pop Warner’s varsity cheer team to a championship trophy at the Dec. 10 Nationals … as well as some surprise runner-up brass! Not only did this team challenge themselves by moving up a difficulty level, but they also agreed to compete in an entirely different division (large school) where they snagged Trophy #2!

“I can’t believe it!” MPW Cheer Director Lauren Leopold, the team’s head coach, joyfully told MethuenLife upon the squad’s return from the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

“This is (MPW’s) fourth (National championship) in the past 12 years … very exciting!”

Methuen earned national No. 1 spots in 2012, 2013, 2019 and now 2024.

Competing at the highest level is nothing new for this troupe of girls (age 12-14) and their coaches.

“Seventeen out of 18 athletes and all of the coaches have competed at Nationals before,” Leopold explained. “This team has gone to Nationals almost every year with their previous coaches, but (had) yet to place.”

Coaches encouraged the team to push themselves to new heights by competing at Level 3 for the first time, which requires more physical fitness and mental stamina.

“They’ve been Level 2 since 2018/19,” Leopold explained. “I’m all about progression and helping them achieve something greater. We try to push them out of their comfort zone. … We tried something more difficult and it paid off!”

Keep in mind: Competing at Nationals means months of practices and winning local and regional competitions, which then comes down to performing a single 2-minute, 30-second routine for the judges.

“In other sports, you get 60 minutes of playtime. In cheerleading, you’ve gotta be perfect or train enough to know how to make up in those moments,” Leopold said. “At Cheer Nationals, you’ve got 2½ minutes and that’s it. Four months of practice and you get ONE chance!”

While Methuen wasn’t perfect, they revved into high gear to make up potential lost points.

“We had a drop in our routine, didn’t hit it perfect … I teach them that recovery is more important than the mistake. Those kids knew how to make it up,” the coach said. “We’ve told them, (your dance) is the last impression you leave on the judges. It’s an opportunity to get in the judges’ faces and communicate, ‘We deserve this and we want this!’

“In this performance, they exploded in that dance with a higher energy than I saw in any other competition! They knew they lost a point, but they could get a near-perfect score in dance. They used that mental resiliency – ‘I’m going to sell this moment to the judges.’ ”

And they danced like never before!

Prior to this, Methuen was one of five teams that agreed to also have their scores considered in the Large Division. A team from New Jersey qualified for Nationals but, upon arriving in Florida, didn’t have any competition (Keep in mind, teams only have a matter of weeks between qualifying for Nationals, getting families to commit to make the trip and doing fund-raising).

“I met the New Jersey coach and said, ‘I have huge respect for you for seeking out competition. That’s the spirit of this forum,’ ” Leopold recalls. “They called the winner of the Large Division first – second place was us! I stopped in my tracks and burst into tears … we knew we won our division. It was the perfect ending that we both won our divisions. Having the championship trophy and winning second place – it’s just the BEST feeling!”

It was a sweet swan song for the 13 or 14 girls who are aging out of Pop Warner and heading into high school.

“A lot of these athletes have been together since F Team as 5- and 6-year-olds. That’s the cohesiveness of a group like that. It absolutely plays into their success,” Leopold said. “Team chemistry is invaluable. It’s hard to be successful without that.”

She also gives kudos to the dedicated parents who’ve been along on this wild ride.

“Starting August 1, we practice 3 or 4 nights a week, have games on Sundays, then Saturdays are the competitions … we did 10 or 11 days without a break in October,” she said. “God love these parents! It takes a lot for them to work into their schedules 10 days in a row, plus the trust to drop off your kids for 2 hours a night and hope that these 5 or 6 people will keep them safe, train them in the right way.”

Of course, it all paid off in the end.

“We left with two Nationals trophies – it was very unique this year!” laughed Leopold.