West Orange Times: Sports Spotlight — Allison Segalini

Allison Segalini is a junior flyer on the Legacy Charter cheerleading team who loves spending time with her teammates and pulling for the Eagles. Segalini serves as a co-captain alongside her sister, Natalie. She still has another year of school left, but she eventually wants to work as a teacher.

When did you get into cheerleading?

When I was in sixth grade, I was at Hope, and I had never done cheer before. I had never done gymnastics before, but I had seen cheer — I had been to one competition before, and I thought it was really cool. I had seen the cheerleaders at the games before, and I thought that it looked really fun, so a couple of my friends were going to do it as well — I was like, ‘Let’s try it!’

Do you remember what those first few practices were like?

I was terrified — I hated stunting. I’m still the one who gets thrown up in the air as a flyer, but I hated that at first. It’s my favorite part of cheer now, but they couldn’t get me to do a cradle — I was terrified of everything. I’m not really a risk-taker, but as the years have gone on, I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable.

What’s your favorite part(s) about cheerleading?

I think stunting is probably my favorite — which is where I get thrown up in the air — and I love the games obviously. I love being here and getting to cheer the football team on, and a lot of my really close friends are on the cheerleading team as well, so it’s great to be able to hang out with them.

What’s your favorite thing about Friday nights?

This year, our football team has won every single game except one, so we’ve had an amazing season. I think the ending of every game — just feeling the energy with the crowd, with our squad and with the football team — is really exciting. As a team and as a squad, it’s really fun to walk away with a victory.

What is the most challenging aspect of cheerleading?

A lot of people don’t understand all of the work that goes into cheerleading. There’s a lot more behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on. We have a huge list of cheers that we have to memorize and be able to pull just right off the bat, in the moment. I’m one of the captains — my sister, Natalie, is the other captain — so as captains, we are in charge of calling the cheers, and we have to be on top of the ball.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I love videography, actually. I don’t do it a lot because it’s really time-consuming, but I’ve done a couple of projects for a couple of different organizations. So I love filming, and photography is hand-in-hand with that. I do like reading and writing, as well, but again, that’s something when I was younger I kind of spent more time doing. I still love journaling and all that, but I used to write a lot more than I do now.

After a game, if you could have your perfect meal, what would it be?

Probably a Chick-fil-A milkshake honestly. I’m usually not starving for an entire meal. I love ice cream and milkshakes, so I’d say probably a strawberry Chick-fil-A milkshake, with whipped cream and a cherry.