The 2003-2004 campaign will be the first year that the Quinnipiac cheerleaders will be recognized as athletes by the Athletic Department. The squad has plenty of spirit and talent with many girls coming from nationally ranked programs in the northeastern part of the country. “We are not just a physically strong team but we are all really close already and have been able to hit difficult and advanced stunts,” said senior co-captain Kiera Casanova of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.

The team has many goals they wish to achieve this year, one of which is to place in their numerous competitions.”The team this year is amazing. We have a lot of new girls who have brought so much talent to the team. Combined with the girls from last year, we are the strongest we have ever been. The talent level is huge.T Every girl on the team is a wonderful asset,” said senior co-captain Lauren Jeffers of Portland, Connecticut.

The Bobcat cheerleaders are very excited for Midnight Madness this year which is Friday October 17. “Our plans for Midnight Madness are to really get the crowd involved this year. We want everyone to come out and have a really great time. The cheerleaders are looking to get everyone really psyched for the team arrivals,” said Jeffers. They will be doing various stunts and tumbles throughout the night before they conclude with a three minute performance.

The squad has numerous goals it wishes to accomplish aside from coming out on top at all its competitions. They also want to stay united as a team and family, to have always have fun with what they do, and to get the crowd more involved at the games. “We will be collaborating with the pep band and the mascot to do things together. We hope to also invite the Crazy Bobcats to one of our practices,” said Casanova.

The team will be participating in competitions this year at the Ansonia High School Invitational and the Seymour Invitational. From these high schools, the team hopes to interest current high school cheerleaders in the Quinnipiac program. These two competitions will help the squad find out what things they are good at and what things they need to improve on for the remaining competitions.

In addition to these competitions, the team will be contending in the USA Wildcats Competition where they placed second the past two years and only fell a few points behind nationally ranked Southern Connecticut State University.

The squad will also be at the Connecticut Spirit Festival where the Bobcats took first place last year against Sacred Heart University, the University of Southern Maine, and Westfield State University.

The team will also be participating in the New England Championships and NCAA Collegiate Championship in Daytona Beach, Florida. This is the first year the squad will be competing against Stephen. F. Austin University, the University of Oklahoma, Florida State University, Temple University, Rutgers University, and ten-time national champion University of Louisville.