Exciting things are happening at Valley Cheer! The cheerleading program is currently located at 1608 21st Street in Lewiston, and will be moving to their new 7,300 square foot facility in February. This expansion will help their athletes and programs grow, as they will offer new classes and build competitive teams for the 2023-24 season.
Valley Cheer was formed in October of 2021 and was a complete labor of love for coach and owner Tami Faraci. She coached varsity high school cheerleading for 8 years in New York State before moving to Oregon in 2019. When no coaching opportunities were available, she decided to start her own program; however that was quickly removed from the plans when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2020. After a year of fighting and beating the disease, they relocated for work purposes to Lewiston, Idaho and it was then that she decided to turn her love of the sport into a youth program for the Valley. In January of 2022, her daughter Bella moved from Oregon to work alongside her as a head coach for Valley Cheer.
The cheerleading program was quick to become popular in the Valley. Their first session began with 40 athletes, and now they coach over one hundred cheerleaders with athletes coming from Lewiston, Clarkston, Asotin, Lapwai and Grangeville. Valley Cheerleading offers classes five days a week. Starting in February, they will offer classes for Game Day Cheerleading (sideline competition format), Pom, Beginner Tumbling, All Star Prep Class, Performance and Stunt. Classes are broken down by age group with their Rubies classes being structured for ages 4-6; Emeralds ages 7-9 and Diamonds ages 10-16.
Faraci said, “The goal of our program is to ensure athletes have the skills to make their school teams when the time comes. Cheerleading becomes more competitive every year and without having prior experience it can make it that much harder to make their team. We are giving these young athletes that experience they need to try out confidently and secure those spots on their team roster. The LC Valley has amazing school teams with a lot of talent and I am so excited for these athletes to experience this! In addition to this we are now forming our own competitive teams to represent the Valley in Show, Pom and Sideline in upcoming 2023 season.”
The new facility will offer two mat areas (small mat and large) as well as an athletes lounge, parents area, tumbling area and sports store that will feature cheerleading apparel and miscellaneous cheer themed items.
Registration for the next session which begins the week of February 13th is now in full swing! Some classes have already filled however there are a lot of classes to choose from. Valley Cheer prides itself on a reasonably priced tuition for their athletes at $35 a month for most classes. If you would like to register please visit www.LCValleycheer.com. If you have questions please reach out to Tami Faraci at ValleyCheerID@gmail.com.
