Tom Lopatosky started Cheer Up Athletics last spring out of necessity. His daughter was a member of another all-star gym in Massachusetts that had to close its doors. The girls on that team had been cheering and competing together for years, and came from all over – from Portsmouth to Franklin, Massachusetts – and now didn’t have a home to practice in or an organization to keep them together. Tom didn’t want the girls to lose the opportunity to compete, so he met up with one of the gym’s coaches, Allison Swallow, and asked her if she would be interested in helping him to start their own gym.
At Cheer Up, Tom and Allison decided they wanted to create programs in addition to their core team’s training. They have half-year and full-year teams that vary in skill and age for kids to sign up for. Cheer Up also offers the space for rent to local high schools in need of valuable mat time to practice routines for upcoming competitions. Looking at the white board with the weekly schedule, you can see they are keeping busy. In addition to offering programs for teams they also have different classes like open tumble sessions for anyone who wants to come and learn or work on their craft with some skilled coaches. They also do private coaching for individuals and teams as well. So you can see Cheer Up aims to provide a little something for all individuals and skill levels.
I found myself at Cheer Up on a Sunday afternoon for an open gym session. The gist is you pay $10 and you can use the mats and the coaches they have available for whatever you care to work on during that two hour session. As a former high school cheerleader who hadn’t even thought about doing a stunt (also known as putting a girl up in the air) or tumbling (I have a fear of it) for years, I was a bit daunted to be surrounded by a group of skilled cheerleaders who were there to just have fun and try stuff out. However, there were also people there who were newish to cheering, like a dancer from a local college who was just interested in trying to learn some tumbling skills.
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