The Ilwaco High School fall cheerleading squad consists of, back row left to right, Rachel Mower, Milly Gustafson, Chloe Star, Hailey Hightower and Miette Chlouber. Captain Kaitlyn Fisher Pinto is in front. Coach is Kelly Velez.

Ilwaco High School’s cheerleaders exist in a state of perpetual enthusiasm.

“I’m excited,” said Hailey Hightower, a sophomore who is new to the six-member fall squad.

The girls have been practicing under new coach Kelly Velez, eager to present a positive image and lead the crowd at football games.

Captain is Kaitlyn Fisher Pinto, one of three seniors on the squad. The others are Rachel Mower and Miette Chlouber. Junior Milly Gustafson and sophomore Chloe Star complete the roster.

Star, who cheered last year, savors the camaraderie. “I like that we become like a family,” she said. “We get to show school spirit and help represent the school. We are bringing the spirit!”

Tradition continues

Gustafson brings her dance skills from the Maddox Studio in Oregon. She is continuing a three-generation Fishermen tradition. Her mother, Johanna, is a 2003 graduate and her grandparents, Warren and Laurie Hazen, both attended IHS.

Several of today’s Fishermen cheers date back to Gustafson’s mother’s era and before.

The junior believes the cheerleaders can offer a positive voice to provide significant help to the other student athletes. “If everything is going against us, we are still together, trying our best to have fun and still supporting our school and the people we see every day,” she said.

Chilly sidelines

Velez takes over the coaching role from Claire Bruncke, who had to reduce her myriad activities when she took the lead as executive director with the Dylan Jude Harrell Community Center.

Velez moved to the Long Beach Peninsula from Arizona about a year ago to work in Surfside. She has about 20 years of dance and dance teaching experience that she is sharing with her team.

At practice, Velez takes the group into the gym and offers them a choice of musical routines that she plays on her phone. Fisher Pinto stands facing front, viewing her teammates in her peripheral vision. She is an enthusiastic leader, calling the cadence with aplomb, always smiling.

Hightower is a picture of concentration. She and the others take their lead from the senior, working together on crisp arm movements and coordinated jumps.

The warm gym is a world away from the Ilwaco football stadium in late fall when the reality of the Pacific Northwest weather kicks in.

“It definitely gets really cold,” said Star, “and there are games where we are all soaking wet. But it’s still fun to be out there.”

On hearing this, Chlouber utters a line that instantly becomes part of IHS cheer folklore.

“Hand-warmers are our best friends!”