[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2360]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     ESSEX HIGH SCHOOL MEDALS IN FIRST APPEARANCE IN CHEERLEADING 
                              CHAMPIONSHIP

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 15, 2005

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I salute the 
Essex High School Cheerleaders, from Essex Junction, Vermont, for 
winning third place in the National High School Cheerleading 
Championship on February 12 in Orlando, Florida.
  The Hornet cheerleaders were competing for the first time. But they 
knew they had something going for them, despite their relative 
inexperience: They had already won the first place award at the New 
England Regional qualifier last fall. That victory, of course, put them 
on a collision course with the nation's very best cheerleading teams, 
all thirty-one of them. After a tough preliminary round, Essex was in 
fourth place, one spot out of the medals. But they bore down in the 
finals, and leaped into the medals with a third place, outpaced only by 
the three-time national champion, Sparkman High of Alabama, and a 
talented team from Archbishop Shaw High School in Louisiana.
  These exceptional young athletes and their coaches at Essex High 
School have worked long and hard to achieve this national recognition. 
Combining grace with athleticism, they have shown the nation that with 
determination and the desire to excel, any door may be opened, even a 
door leading to a top place in national competition.
  All of Essex High School, all of Essex and Essex Junction, all of 
Vermont, are proud of these young women and men. May this be the 
beginning of a proud new tradition.

                          ____________________