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Billerica Memorial High School Cheerleading

Billerica Memorial High School Cheerleading is the cheerleading program of Billerica Memorial High School and, before it, of Howe High School: sideline squads that lead the cheers at football, basketball and hockey games and at the school's pep rallies, and competition squads that have made Billerica one of the leading cheer programs in Massachusetts. The fall squad, which cheers for the Billerica Memorial High School Football team, and the winter squad, which cheers for basketball, compete separately. The fall squad won the school's first state title in 1989, and by 2025 the program counted eleven state championships, the last of them the Division 2 title and the first Grand Champion title of the winter of 2025.

Howe High had cheer leaders by the late 1920s, when seniors of 1929 listed "Cheer Leader '28" among their activities in the school paper, The Torch, and the yearbook of 1937 describes a senior who was "a cheer leader during the football and basketball seasons." In the fall of 1943 Howe's football crowds were led in songs and cheers by twelve girls "in flashing uniforms of green corduroy skirts or slacks and white sweaters with the letter H," bought with the proceeds of a dance; the yearbook called them "the largest and liveliest group of cheerleaders that the school has ever had." Their faculty supervisor was Miss Marjorie Shaw, and later squads were coached or advised by Mary A. Fitzgerald (1947) and Eleanor Wain (1952). The cheerleaders ran the rally in the school auditorium before the Thanksgiving Day game with Chelmsford, escorted to the stage by the football players. In the early 1950s the Business Men's Club gave its annual banquet to the football players, the cheerleaders and the band, and in 1954 it presented gold megaphones to the senior cheerleaders. That year's squad wore forest green corduroy uniforms with white mandarin collars, white gloves and white drum majorette boots. In the fall of 1955 the cheerleaders gave the first dance in the new Billerica Memorial High School.

In the 1960s the squad, chosen for "leadership, school spirit, character, personality, appearance, and scholastic record," began to compete. Advised by Miss Hood, the cheerleaders won a trophy as the most outstanding squad at the Ashby Tournament in the winter of 1961, and the school's all-sport record for that year lists them as "Ashby Tournament Cheerleading Champions"; in 1962 they competed at Needham and Ashby. Later advisers included Miss Curtin and Miss Watson (1963) and Mrs. Patricia Cain (1966). The squad won the Merrimack Valley Cheering Competition in 1970 and the North Reading High School tournament in 1971. By the late 1970s there were separate football, hockey and basketball squads: the hockey cheerleaders of 1977-78 followed the unbeaten Billerica Memorial High School Hockey team to the state games, and the winter cheerleaders held a Spirit Week and rally for the winter teams in February 1978.

Competitive cheer grew in the 1980s. The 1986 football squad, coached by Vincent DeFeo, was voted the most outstanding team at a summer camp at the University of New Hampshire and took third place at a competition at Beverly High School, and the 1988 squad placed third at the Northern Area competition at Beverly and third at the state championships at Clark University. The 1989 football squad won the camp championship of the Universal Cheerleaders Association and then the Division II state championship in the NECCA state competition, "a first in the school's history," and that winter the basketball squad placed second of 26 teams in its first competition and first at the state competition. In the 1990s the squads won the Woburn Invitational in 1993 and were runner-up there in 1995. Their coaches included Mrs. Gallagher (1990-91), Rosie Petrosillo (1994), Diane Cefalo (1997-98) and Rachel Morey, under whom freshmen were first allowed on the winter squad in 1999-2000.

From about 2001 the squads competed in a season of league, regional and state meets. Under Meghan Flynn the winter squad won the Merrimack Valley Conference title in 2002-03, and in 2003-04 it won the league again and was the only team from its regional to qualify for the state meet. The 2005 football squad placed second at the league and regional meets and sixth at the state meet and received the program's first bid to the national championships, and the 2006 squad placed fifth at the state meet and earned another national bid. Krissy Sorenson, coach from 2007 into the middle 2010s, led the fall squad to a Merrimack Valley title in her first season.

The first of the program's modern state titles came in the fall of 2012, when the class of 2013 "brought home a state championship in cheerleading." The town reports counted a second Division 1 state title in three years in 2014 and a third in four years in 2015. Both squads were Merrimack Valley Conference champions in 2015-16, and the fall squad again in 2016-17 and 2017-18. The winter squad won an MSAA championship in 2019 and the North Sectional title and conference trophy in 2020, and the program won the Division 2 state title in 2021-22; in 2023 the school counted its fall and winter cheerleaders as "7 time State Champions." In the championships of the Massachusetts School Administrators' Association the squads won Division 2 in the fall of 2023 and the winter of 2024 and Division 1 in the fall of 2024, with a score of 94.7. In March 2025 at Worcester State University the winter squad won Division 2 with a score of 95.1 and no deductions, "their 11th State Championship," and the program's first Grand Champions title, "recognizing Billerica as the single best cheer program across all divisions in the state." The fall squad was second in Division 2 in 2025, and the winter squad won Division 2 again in 2026, with a score of 94.1, qualifying to represent Massachusetts at the CNESSPA Spirit Championship.

Billerica Memorial High School and Howe High School cheerleading by season, from Howe and Warrior yearbooks, town reports and MSAA results. Fall seasons are given by year, winter seasons by school year; blank cells are not known, and seasons with no surviving information are omitted.
Season	Squad	Coach or adviser	League result	Regional result	State result	Notes
1928	Howe High					Cheer leaders listed in The Torch
1943	Football	Marjorie Shaw				Twelve cheerleaders; first green and white "H" uniforms
1946	Football	Mary A. Fitzgerald				Eleven cheerleaders
1951-52	Football and basketball	Eleanor Wain
1953-54	Football and basketball					Gold megaphones from the Business Men's Club
1960-61	Football and basketball	Miss Hood			Ashby Tournament champions	Most outstanding squad at Ashby
1961-62	Football and basketball				Needham and Ashby tournaments
1962-63	Football and basketball	Miss Curtin and Miss Watson
1965-66	Football and basketball	Patricia Cain
1969-70			Won the Merrimack Valley Cheering Competition
1970-71					Won the North Reading High School tournament
1979	Football	Mrs. Boudreau
1986	Football	Vincent DeFeo		3rd at Beverly		Most outstanding team at the UNH camp
1988	Football			3rd, Northern Area at Beverly	3rd at Clark University
1989	Football				NECCA Division II state champion	First state title
1989-90	Basketball			2nd of 26	State champion
1990-91	Basketball	Mrs. Gallagher
1993	Football			1st, Woburn Invitational
1994	Football	Rosie Petrosillo
1995	Football			2nd, Woburn Invitational; 6th, Northeastern Massachusetts regional
1997-98	Basketball	Diane Cefalo
1999-2000	Basketball	Rachel Morey				Freshmen first allowed on the squad
2001-02	Basketball		2nd, Merrimack Valley	Competed
2002	Football	Meghan Flynn	2nd, MVC	Competed
2002-03	Basketball	Meghan Flynn	MVC champion	Competed
2003-04	Basketball		MVC champion	Qualified (80.5)	Competed
2005	Football		2nd, MVC	2nd	6th	First bid to the national championships
2006	Football		2nd, MVC	2nd	5th	Bid to the national championships
2007	Football	Krissy Sorenson	MVC champion
2012	Football				State champion
2015-16	Football and basketball		MVC champions
2016	Football		MVC champion
2018-19	Basketball				MSAA champion
2019-20	Basketball		MVC champion	North Sectional champion
2021-22					Division 2 state champion
2023	Fall				MSAA Division 2 champion
2023-24	Winter				MSAA Division 2 champion
2024	Fall				MSAA Division 1 champion (94.7)
2024-25	Winter				MSAA Division 2 champion (95.1); Grand Champions	The program's 11th state title
2025	Fall				2nd, MSAA Division 2 (89.7)
2025-26	Winter				MSAA Division 2 champion (94.1)	Qualified for the CNESSPA Spirit Championship

Billerica Memorial High School Cheerleading

Billerica Memorial High School Cheerleading

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