AUBURN - The gymnasium at the new BOCES facility got a full-fledged inauguration Thursday night when the girls of the Auburn Pop Warner cheerleading program gathered for a night of loud and proud cheering before friends and family.

The gym provided the perfect backdrop for a huge gathering of the 112 girls that make up all six teams, from Flag to Midget.

Generally, all the teams get together and practice separately in various school gyms around Auburn, but this year the programs directors were hoping to do something a little different.

“We wanted to get everybody together,” said Cherie Cooper, director of public relations for Pop Warner, “We wanted to do something to get all the girls together and give parents and grandparents and everybody a chance to watch them perform their cheers.”

Lisa Stearns, cheerleading coordinator said that things just fell into place.

“We made some calls,” Stearns said. “Seward School had an event, West Middle School and the high school had things going on. So we called here and asked if we could use the gym and it just worked out really well.”

With a new springy floor, the BOCES facility offered the perfect place for evening of cheerleading demonstrations and practices.

“It is a great facility,” Stearns said. “The perfect place for the girls to practice and it is nice and safe.”

For some of the girls the chance to perform for a large audience of friends and family was a whole new experience from the usual small crowds of the Pop Warner games.

“It's a lot of fun,” said Lexi Vitale, 8, “I'm really excited to get to do my cheers in front of a lot of people and see them clap and everything, that makes it a lot of fun.”

But the night was about more than just giving the girls a chance to show off their skills for friends and family.

Sunday morning the girls will all be heading off to Syracuse for the first round of the annual cheerleading competitions.

“This gives people who can't make it to Syracuse a chance to see what the girls will be doing,” Cooper said. “But it is also a good chance for the girls to practice and get ready for Syracuse.”

For cheerleaders like Vitale, Sunday will mark their debut in competitive cheering.

“I'm really excited about that,” Vitale said. “I'm really happy that we get to do our cheers in front of the judges and everything. I can't wait to see how we do.”

For other girls who have been through the Syracuse competitions before, this can be a time when nerves and stress can be at all time high.

“We want to do well,” said Haley Stearns, 12, “So we do get a little nervous right about now. There are going to be a lot of people there and a lot of other cheerleaders and judges watching what we do, but once you are there it really isn't too bad.”

For the older girls, like Stearns, a member of the junior midget squad, preparations for Syracuse literally began the first day of practice back in July.

“The girls have been getting ready for this for a while now,” Cooper said. “The younger girls start practicing in August and the older girls start in July. They put a lot of time and hard work into getting ready for this.”

Through the entire season, the girls have been able to build up a bond that has helped them create stronger performances.

“We practice a lot as a team,” Katie Cooper, 12, said. “We have a lot of cooperation and we work really well together and I think that will help us a lot and has helped us get better as a team.”

Thursday night's dress rehearsals gave the girls a chance to work things out in front of a real audience.

“This is perfect,” Stearns said. “I think this is really good for all the girls, it helps them get used to doing this in front of a lot more people and helps work out all the little details one more time before we got to Syracuse.”

For the past few years, the Auburn program has been very successful, sending teams on to regionals in Rochester and for the past two years they have sent teams to New Jersey for national competition.

And this year the girls have their sights squarely set on making it there again.

“We're a little nervous to see how we do,” Katie Cooper said. “But we definitely want to get to New Jersey again. We want to show that we are just as good or better than we were last year, so right now that is our big goal.”