Genoa cheerleaders bring home first-ever state titles

Genoa cheerleading coach Maria Maluchnik could not be prouder of her girls after they brought home two state championships.
The Genoa cheerleaders competed in two categories during the 29th Annual OASSA state championships — Division 4 Building and Division 4 Game Day Building, winning titles in both. Maluchnik says both divisions have different requirements for the routines and routine elements. 
Her D-4 Building team had 30 girls perform and of those 30, 19, plus the school mascot performed in the Game Day division. Malucnik says this is Genoa’s first cheer squad state championship and winning in two divisions in one year makes it even more memorable. First, they had to qualify to state in both divisions by submitting videos to regional competition.
It started when the team first came together last August to begin preparing routines.
“At the very beginning of the season, our girls were very ambitious,” Maluchnik said. “They set very high goals. I know they are talented, and they knew they were talented, but we had to rein it in. They wanted to win state in both divisions, and they wanted it from the beginning.
“To hear them push so hard and be so ambitious about it, it was so inspiring. It was just a great thing to see these girls push themselves so much and actually go for it. Not only did they want it, but they also put in the work regardless of all the difficult things that we ran into, the quarantines and everything else.”
The event is typically held at Ohio State University, but this year it was conducted virtually with teams submitting videos of their performance. In the Game Day division, Lake finished as state runner-up behind Genoa. In the Building division, Genoa finished ahead of Waynesville and Heath. In Division 5 Building, Northwood finished as state runner-up behind Van Wert Lincolnview.
Maluchnik said her team well outperformed its competition.
“When I finally got the score sheets, I was extremely proud because looking at those — they are not scores like at a baseball game, but we definitely were well ahead of everyone in our division as far as points go,” Maluchnik said.
Not every competition Genoa competed in was virtual this year.
“We did get to compete at a couple events in person — at Bowling Green High School and at Maumee High School and then we hosted another competition where you cheer in front of a crowd,” Maluchnik said. “We chose not to compete at our own. So, every time we got to compete in front of a crowd this year it was like a practice run for the recordings that truly mattered the most at the end.”
Maluchnik and her cheerleaders set a high bar for themselves by performing a high level routine to the Building division.
“Our competition routine is more of an elite routine — tons of tumbling and as high a level as we can get to push the envelope as far as we can to do some really tough stuff,” Maluchnik said.
“But with Game Day, our requirements are a little bit different. They judge difficulty on a little bit lower level as far as tumbling goes. When it comes to stunts, you are only allowed to do a certain amount of stunts as well, so they don’t make it about the difficulty of your skills. They make it about how clean your routine is.
“The focus of Game Day is traditional cheerleading, like how well can you get the crowd to cheer back with you? Can you lead a crowd? Can you use the time appropriately? So, Game Day is all about more traditional cheerleading where our other routine is a show-routine, if you will.”
 
Continuing Stella Bertz legacy
Maluchnik, who graduated from Genoa in 1997, brings to the cheerleading squad plenty of experience. She is the daughter of the late Stella Bertz, who was Genoa’s cheer coach for 10 years but passed away from cancer at age 47 in 2003. Held for 15 years and counting, the Stella Bertz Cheer for a Cure event has gotten so big it has been moved to SeaGate Convention Centre in downtown Toledo, raising as much as $800,000 per event for cancer research.
“We were really successful when I was in high school. We went to nationals and cheered in Florida to compete,” Maluchnik said. “We were really good, and my mom continued on coached for a long time and left an amazing legacy. When she got sick, I started coaching at Genoa for a few years, and then I stopped coaching at Genoa and did all-star coaching for a while and last year was my first year back coaching at the high school.”
In the last couple years, Genoa has had three cheerleaders cheer for the University of Toledo — Maggie Novotney, Anna Sutter and Dylan Witt. Maluchnik recommends that if you want to compete in cheerleading, get started at an early  age, especially for tumbling.
“It depends. When it comes to tumbling, they have to be working on that from a pretty young age. Some of my girls are incredible tumblers,” Maluchnik said. “They could do tumbling before they could walk. They are amazing.
“Of course, that is an important piece of the puzzle, but when it comes to all the stunting and everything, I can teach technique if they are willing to work as hard as possible and willing to learn, I can teach them those things. The tumbling takes taking gymnastics and being involved in tumbling classes from a young age, which is super important if you want to be an elite-level tumbler.”
If you are a Genoa high school student and want to be involved with Genoa cheerleading, feel free to start now.
“My philosophy is if you want to be on the sidelines to cheer on the Comets, I’ll get you a uniform and you can do that. So, we have a lot of fun on the sidelines but then the extra work comes in if you want to compete. Thirty of the girls wanted to compete — I didn’t necessarily hold a separate tryout for that. If they wanted to do it, they could. Again, I’m of the belief that I am going to teach you what you need to know,” Maluchnik said.
Genoa cheerleaders are (seniors) Emily Austin, Aislyn Burr, Samara Contos, Sara Dembowski, Kayla Knight, Veronica Lopez, Miranda Whiteman, mascot Jonah Goodrich (juniors) Chelsea Adkinds, Chelsea Allen, Alisah Bailey, Brittney Diekman, Lexi Pappocchia, (sophomores) Natalie Woody, Courtney Perkins, Gabriellea Millner, Brooklyn Kandik, Hope Hecklinger, Hailey Deverna, Carly Campbell, Ceiara Adams, (freshmen) Cinya Adams, Heaven Avila, Rachel Beard, Grace Buehler, Grace Bradfield, Autumn Estevanes, Kennedy Maluchnik, Makynna Ralston, Tori Way and Maggie Tucholski.