Marlo Lovitch, 17, of Northridge was in the 10-member squad of cheerleaders from California School for the Deaf, Riverside (CSDR) participating in the 1 st Annual Aloha International Spirit Championships (ISC) competition held at Waikiki Shell in Hawaii February 14 and 15, 2003. The team won first place in the Varsity Division.
The Varsity Division consists of squads of cheerleaders, from 9th to 12th grades, with team members from the same school. Twenty-nine cheerleading squads from all over U.S. participated, mostly from California. CSDR Cubs cheerleaders performed in 1 st and 2nd rounds and the scores from both rounds were averaged for the final results. “We were all in shock,” Coach Stacey Hausman said of the team’s win. “I was jumping up and down like a hysterical person.”
The squad was the second Deaf group to ever compete in an international pep squad competition. They followed in the footsteps of Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, which competed nationally in 1992.
