Julia Denoncourt missed cheerleading. Forced out of competition during her senior year in 2020 due to a back injury, she longed for a way to keep doing what she loved. That’s when she received a call from her older sister, Rachel, that proved to be the answer.
“Do you want to coach?”
Julia and Rachel (‘18) both cheered at Pembroke Academy during one of the most successful periods in program history that saw the Spartans take home four straight winter state championships from 2018-21, two additional fall championships in 2018 and 2019 and a runner-up finish in 2020.
Cheer quietly became an institution at PA since it began 30 years ago. High school cheerleading, or “spirit” as it is officially referred to by the NHIAA, is a two-season sport in New Hampshire with state competitions in the fall and winter.
The program won back-to-back state titles in 1995 and 1996, did it again in 2001 and 2002 and then claimed victory once more in 2009. There was nearly another title mixed in during the 2005 season when they lost in a tiebreaker to Pelham.
Despite its long run of success, the program’s visibility has shrunk in recent years. Enter the Denoncourts, part of a group of coaches hoping to restore PA cheer to its glory days.
Learning on the job
It was 2021 when the Denoncourts responded to a post looking for coaches for the Jr. Spartans youth cheer program. Because of the rain outside, their first practice was relegated to the PA cafeteria.
“We were looking at each other, looking at the girls, asking if we were doing this correctly,” Julia said. “It was definitely an adjustment. … All these girls are looking to you for direction and you were always the one getting the direction, so giving it was hard.
“I have to pull my knowledge all the way back to basics and try to teach it to them. But it was exciting.”
This is also when the sisters pulled in a third member to complete their coaching triumvirate — Jonatha Morissette (‘18). Morissette, although she had no experience as a cheerleader, developed a passion for the sport through her close relationship with the Denoncourts and quickly found herself playing an important role as a coach.
“I really bonded with our athletes the first year and they started calling me ‘Auntie Jo,’” Morissette said. “At first I told them not to call me coach because I didn’t know what (the Denoncourts) know (about cheer), but then I did get the training and I did go to the classes. Now I’m spotting girls and I can tell them what to do, I’m fully in it. I’m a full coach now.”
Success followed quickly. During their first season with the Jr. Spartans, they placed third in their division at the Fall Classic in Londonderry, even though seven of their 11 athletes had no prior cheer experience. And they improved the following season, routinely placing second at events and even making an appearance at regionals.
But it all clicked during their third season in 2023, which saw the program jump from Level 2 to Level 3 for the first time in recent memory. Level 3 is more advanced and requires a higher difficulty of skill in both tumbling and stunting, among other things.
Competing at a higher level during the 2023 season, the Jr. Spartans placed second at regionals and ultimately finished as a runner-up at a national competition in Florida.
“That was our biggest achievement so far as coaches,” Rachel said. “It was crazy.”
A familiar path
Nicole McAlister (‘13), who coached the Denoncourts at PA, knows this road better than anyone. She and her high school teammate, Melissa Gerrish-Richardson (‘13), started coaching the Jr. Spartans before they had even graduated from Pembroke.
McAlister gave up her senior season of lacrosse to coach the youth program, a decision that her mother, Michelle Weldon, did not agree with at first. But she eventually came around to play an important role, McAlister said, because the minimum age to be a head coach was 21. By assuming the head coach position — albeit in more of a “figurehead” role, per McAlister — Weldon’s daily presence at Jr. Spartans practices and competitions allowed McAlister and Gerrish-Richardson to forge their coaching playbook before ultimately arriving to coach PA cheer in 2016.
“I was young, so we were learning a lot as coaches and fostering a love for the sport,” McAlister said. “You’re not so worried about winning as much as building a foundation for the kids.”
At PA, then joined by assistant coach Alyssa McQueen-Ziegler (‘08), McAlister helped revive a program that hadn’t hung a championship banner since 2009. After successfully adding a fall spirit season for the first time in the school’s history in 2017, the Spartans rattled off five consecutive championships (fall and winter) and six of seven overall from 2018-21.
As cheerleaders, the Denoncourts played huge roles in those championship campaigns.
“Rachel was one of the best captains I ever had,” McAlister said. “She led by example and didn’t care which position she was in — whatever was best for the team. “Julia was probably one of the most talented kids I’ve ever coached. Just that kid that could be a base, a backsplash, she didn’t care. But she always said she wanted to coach.
“(There’s a saying that) the best athletes don’t always make the best coaches, but they might be wrong about that one.”
The Denoncourts have leaned on McAlister for advice this season, asking questions and even extending an invitation to showcase their performance before a competition.
“I was like, ‘I’m already halfway there,’” McAlister said of receiving the invitation. “The girls were so excited, all the kids I had coached before. It was awesome, and I think it showed the girls we’re all part of the same team even though you sometimes feel like the ex-girlfriend.”
Now away from the program, McAlister has taken a sit-back approach in her relationship with the Denoncourts, a strategy she borrowed from her mentor — Donna Ong, the longtime PA cheer coach who was responsible for most of the program’s early success, including during McAlister’s time on the mat.
Upon taking over the program, McAlister said she, too, was drawn to her high school coach for advice, but added that “(Ong) would come in and look to me first” before sharing opinions.
“It felt like she was giving me the space to be my own coach,” McAlister said, “and that’s what I want for (the Denoncourts).”
‘Hang a couple more banners’
The Denoncourts and Morissette are looking to follow in the footsteps of McAlister and Gerrish-Richardson, parlaying their success at the youth level into a new challenge of bringing championships back to the high school program.
Rachel Denoncourt said coming in as a high school coach this season came with just as much of a learning curve as the start of their youth coaching journey in 2021.
“It was definitely intimidating,” she said. “We did not have tryouts in the youth program. Everyone’s just on the team. We were handed a roster like, ‘This is what you’re working with.’ So having to look at people and evaluate them was a little nerve-wracking.”
Julia, who also handles the team’s choreography, added: “The three of us are still pretty young. We went to school with some of these girls’ sisters. I’ve known them for a while, so it is a little weird coming into this position like, ‘Now I’m your coach.’
“But we’ve adjusted really well with them, and they adjusted to us.”
That adjustment was made easier by the fact that several of the athletes on this year’s fall squad cheered under the Denoncourts and Morissette with the Jr. Spartans program.
Still, the coaches felt they had something to prove in taking over a program that, although equipped with a championship pedigree, has been tumultuous in recent years.
“We’ve had to gain a lot of the seniors’ trust,” Morissette said. “I didn’t feel like we had to prove ourselves to the younger ones, the ones we already knew, but I definitely felt like there was a wall we had to break through to show them we have their best interests at heart.”
The program’s numbers are much healthier this fall. At the time of publication, the Spartans placed first, third and fifth at various competitions this season and expect to compete this winter, too.
“We’ve never been coaches who say we need to win,” Julia said. “Just go out there and do your best and do better than your last performance. If the scores are there and we win, that’s awesome. Let’s celebrate. And if not, that’s OK. We’ll have work for next season.”
The future is what keeps the coaches excited, as they expect to see more of the girls they coached with the Jr. Spartans eventually arrive at PA.
“The hope is to grow the program,” Julia said, “and hang a couple more banners.”
