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Madison's Ardito Ready to Cheer on the Big Stage

Hand's Taylor Ardito isn't the type of cheerleader who likes to be left on the sidelines as the youngster has a competitive streak in her just like the other athletes she cheers to victory. But unlike many athletes who only get the opportunity to compete at the local or state level, Taylor will put her talents on display on an international stage later this month.

Taylor, a Hand sophomore, will compete with the Spirit All-Star Kryptonite co-ed Level 5 cheerleading team in the United States All-Star Federation World Cheerleading Championships at Walt Disney World's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida from April 27-29. Alongside fellow Hand classmate Glen Foreman, Taylor will tumble, stunt, and fly her way to what she calls an "opportunity of a lifetime."

"If we hit our routine, we definitely can place," Taylor says. "We probably won't take first, but we could do pretty well, especially for a team from Connecticut. Our goal is to be in the top 10."

A cheerleader since she was in 4th grade, Taylor was introduced to the competitive side of her sport at an early age by friend and fellow cheerleader, Tiffany Kaufmann. The two would go on to compete for the Spirit youth team before joining the high school ranks as freshmen.

But prior to this year, cheering for Hand and cheering for the Spirit were two totally different monsters. On the competitive side with the Spirit, the focus was on technique and the difficulty of the routine, while Hand boasted more traditional cheerleaders whose goal was to stir up support from the crowd.

"[Competitive and high school cheering] are very different; it is so different going from cheerleading a game to a competition," says Taylor who has made the honor roll every trimester of high school. "At games, you actually can cheer for other people and you are not doing anything very difficult. The skills in competitive cheerleading are much more difficult and you don't actually cheer for anyone. You don't even speak; you are only doing a two-and-a-half-minute routine with tumbling, stunting, tosses, and pyramid. It is a jumble of skills, where cheering at games, more of the focus is on getting people riled up."

However, in 2011, the Hand cheerleading program formed its own competitive cheer team and took home second place in the Southern Connecticut Conference Championship with Taylor and Kaufmann earning All-SCC and All-State honors along the way.

"I think it is really cool [winning the All-SCC and All-State honors]. It is kind of flattering and I wasn't expecting it," Taylor says. "It was stressful, sure, and I didn't know how it would turn out, but it ended up being pretty awesome."

Taylor's focus now is on winning at the international level. Taylor helped lead the Spirit to the World Cheerleading Championships with a strong performance in the Cheer Sport National Championships in Atlanta, Georgia as the Spirit placed fifth in the Senior Small Co-ed Five Division, receiving an at-large bid to compete in Disney later this month.

"On our team, Taylor has a great attitude and works extremely well with her teammates," said Spirit Coach Idris Boyer. "She is very talented with her flying skills which has improved her to Level 5. She pretty much can do any stunt you ask her to do, along with great skills, jumps, and dancing."

This was Taylor's second time competing in Nationals and her prior experience told her the Spirit had a shot at moving on to the big stage this year.

"It was really fun when I went last year with my team," she says. "The competition is absolutely huge. There are five separate arenas with teams constantly competing. There are over 900 teams from all the divisions, teams from California, Connecticut, and Florida; it is crazy how many people you meet. We were aiming for [a bid into Worlds] all year and we worked really hard to get there. Now it just a matter of hitting the routine again."

Taylor has played a big role in the Spirit hitting that routine by flying in the opening, followed by three tumble passes, a stunt, another tumble, a jump sequence, and then ending the choreographed routine as a pyramid base.

"On our team, she is a flier, as well as a tumbler who has added some extra passes," Boyer says. "She definitely is adding to our tumbling skills with a full twist. She is stunting at the highest level at that division, and that, along with her flexibility, will help our team a lot with our numbers."